Tales of an Imperial Officer I
by Ckyblaze
Summary: Son of the Empire - this first part revolves around Impetus Cky, an Admiral in the Imperial Navy. Being in command of the Eruption, Cky is sent to destroy a Rebel base, but finds himself fighting ghosts from his own Rebel past.


Tales of an Imperial Officer Part 1

**SON OF THE EMPIRE**

I.

As he keeled over and down on the floor, it looked to him that it swayed back and forward, making him even dizzier. The choking Force grip around his throat did not end until he lay on the floor, unable to move because of the lack of oxygen. And just as Impetus thought that this was it, the grip was released, making him look like a big fish on the floor, gasping for air. Nefas, the female Sith stood above him, admiring her work for a while, then opened the two blast doors that led to her chamber and let two black clad guards in.

"Thank you for this time." She said and turned. The two guards helped Impetus up, as he could barely stand for himself and helped him out of the room. The big doors closed behind them. After that Impetus could not remember more.

As he gained consciousness again, he could feel the small rocking from the hyperspace travel and the familiar smell of the artificial air coming from the ventilation shafts above his head.

A short while he lay on his bed without opening his eyes, trying to cope with the burning in his throat. He could barely breathe normally, as every breath hurt as if he had thin needles in his neck. Then, finally, he braced himself and got up, pulling his feet over the edge of the bed. His room was sparsely decorated, following the trend of white and steel colors accompanied with black and red furniture, not that he had much of it.

Just a sofa in front of a big screen where he sat and went through the endless reports from his personnel and a steel table, with a black chair, where he spent his free time trying to drown his memories in some strange drink, usually gin or brandy. Not that he was addicted to it, just that you sometimes needed to forget things for a while. He had often wondered how droids could keep themselves from self-destruction when they could not forget, but then they did not have any feelings.

He rose and tried too keep his balance as he walked over the softly lit room to the bathroom. There he unwillingly removed his clothes and stepped into the shower. Some minutes later he was dressed up again, in another, newly washed, olive-grey form. It was in the same the same style he always wore nowadays. He did not button his collar just yet; he could spare himself from the pain in his own quarters at least.

After chewing and swallowing one of those "good-for-your-teeth" pills he turned to the mirror, carefully examining his neck. It was bruised and blue, as if someone had put a dark blue torque on him. He buttoned up the collar and looked again, it was still somewhat visible, but everyone working with him had already seen this before, so he did not really care that much about it.

He found his brown hair in disarray and quickly fixed it up so it would not look like he was some kind of alien bird. Sighing, he grabbed his palm-sized Micro Disc Carrier from his pocket, ordering some new painkillers up to his quarters. Then he found himself looking in the mirror again, his pale face reluctantly looking back at him. Sometimes he wished himself back in time, to his Imperial Academy days. When he attended the bridge, he could hear the navigators or some other low ranking officers whispering to each other, calling him a "daydreamer", mostly because he had a tendency to stare out the window on the bridge for long periods of time. _And they thought that he didn't hear!_ But he did not try to stop them, some enjoyment must be allowed.

He frowned at himself and walked out to grab something to eat, but before he had the time to his MDC link flashed to life. Somewhat hesitant he opened it and looked at the small screen at his second in command, Garavirr.

"We are approaching Halavyn VI, Admiral. Do you want us to hold positions?" Impetus thought for a while, then said:

"No, I will come up there myself in thirty." Then he closed the comlink and went over to his drawers to fetch himself a new cap. He really had no idea where his old one was.

Half an hour later, he walked onto the Imperial Star Destroyer _Typhoon'_s command bridge and looked around. To Impetus great relief, Nefas was not attending the bridge. He had only slept for a couple of hours, not more than the usual time he used to get, but Nefas on the other hand slept about fifteen standard hours per day, too lazy to get out of bed. Impetus usually tried to avoid her as much as he could. Those Jedi, or Sith, always got on his nerves, so to say.

Garavirr met him up on walking deck, and they both walked over to the big window in front. Garavirr did not mention anything about the bruises on his commander's neck, and maybe it was best that way. As always the two navigators down on the left were whispering to each other.

"…been with that Nefas again…"

"…wonder what she's doing to him all the time…" The both navigators giggled silently, and then turned to their stations as Impetus walked by.

_If you only knew_. Impetus thought and straightened himself, turning to Garavirr.

"Are we ready to send down our forces?" He wondered, staring out on the green planet below the ship.

"At your command, sir." Garavirr answered.

"Then deploy them as soon as an opportunity reveals itself." Impetus said and continued to look outside. Garavirr went off to the officer in command of the landing and started discussing plans.

Halavyn VI was a small planet, abundant in grasslands and some small forests. For reasons unknown, some Rebels had decided that this was the perfect place for a base, so the Imperial High Command had sent out Impetus and his ship, the Typhoon, to this backwater planet, responsible for dropping the stormtroopers on the surface. The rest the ground officers would take care of.

Some time later, as the troops had already left the ship, one of the servicemen down in one of the "trenches" called out, trying to get someone's attention.

"What is it?!?" Impetus barked back, walking over to him and looking down. "Why are you yelling?!?" Impetus massaged his soar throat and stared down on the yelling man.

"Sir!" He cried out, "Half of our troop-ships are gone, sir!"

"What?!?" Impetus grumbled and jumped straight down next to the man. "How can this be?!?" The man seemed too surprised to answer him, but then he turned to his screen again.

"By the Empire! Another ten are gone sir!" Impetus ran over to another of the stationed officers.

"What is causing this?!?" He asked, feeling that his voice would not hold much longer.

"The Rebels must have some kind of undetected weapon, sir! They are locking on us now!" Impetus swore to himself and heaved himself out of the trench.

"Order everyone to brace themselves!" He yelled to the radioman and took a grab of a railing in front, staring down on the green fields. _A weapon there?!? Why hadn't they noticed it? _He cursed the Security Bureau for not noticing them.

As the alarm set off, Impetus could see at least ten bight yellow beams being shot from somewhere on the ground. They were heading straight towards his ship. Gripping the bar some harder, he closed his eyes. He had no wish to become blinded from the impacts. The rays began striking the ship seconds later, and the impacts were so heavy and irregular that Impetus lost his grip and fell down on the floor, gliding slowly over the floor. _At least they polished it properly_. He thought.

As the ship stopped to shake, he got up, only to hear someone else scream:

"Half of our shields gone! They hit one of the shield generators, sir!" Somewhere else someone shouted:

"Another wave coming in!"

"Counter fire!" Impetus ordered and looked out the window again. It must have been some old base they found, with an old defense system. Impetus had heard about these kinds of planets, but never seen one himself. Half of the yellow blasts perished this time as they collided with the ship's red ones. The ship shook less violently this time. "Redirect all available power to the batteries and shields!" He shouted again.

"Shields up to sixty percent!" Someone from the trench shouted. Garavirr was trying to get out of the other one; he had probably fallen down there. Impetus looked down again, watching the lasers hit some small compounds on the surface.

"They have a local shield over the base! We will not get through it in some time." Garavirr said, straightening his clothes. Not that any clothes could hide his oversized stomach. _How could someone miss ten ground-to-air lasers and a shield?_ Impetus wondered. "Another volley!" The technician called out and lay down on the floor. Impetus glanced outside. This time it was ten blue beams, slightly larger than the other ones. _If the yellow one took out half of our shields, these ones must…_

More than that he had not time to think before he grabbed a pole and crouched as well, closing his eyes once again. A giant explosion could be heard somewhere it the belly of the giant ship. Half falling, half slipping down on the floor again, Impetus tried to get a grip of something, but the floor was absolutely clean and plain. As the ships gravity and orbital sensors started to malfunction, the whole ship tipped downwards, as if diving down on the planet. This made Impetus slide forward towards the window.

Twisting himself he managed to break his fall with his feet, balancing on his boots' heels on the edge of the huge glass window. Garavirr was lying on the glass, probably unconscious. Impetus opened his comlink and connected a channel to the first man at the rudder.

"Straighten her up!" He yelled and looked down on the planet, now stretching wide under his feet. _How could something like this happen?!?_ The ship seemed to straighten slightly, but not enough. As he looked out, he saw some small blue ship flying out from underneath his ship. _The Typhoon did not have any blue ships!_ Entering the atmosphere of the planet, Impetus pulled out his MDC and took some photos, then put it down together with his cap into his inner pocket. All he could do now was to watch, and he did.

As the hull crashed into the planets surface, it almost sounded as if the ship tried to scream out something, as the ear-piercing sound of metal breaking echoed trough the now empty halls. _This is it._ Impetus thought and grabbed his pole harder, clutching it tight in his hand as it seemed everything exploded around him. He saw the nose of the ship dig into the surface 1, 6 kilometers away, destroying everything in its way. A sharp crack echoed throughout the room, and soon the whole bridge began sliding down from the top position on the ship and down towards the ground. Cracks began to appear over the window.

Everything seemed to fall apart, it rained sparks and metal bars were flying through the air. These kinds of ships were not built to withstand something like this! With a crash the whole bridge stopped, and the glass on which Impetus stood crashed into thousands of pieces, making him fly out and down on the deck, about five meters down. He crashed down on the surface, feeling his breath escape him. Unable to move, he turned and stared up at the tower that seemed to lean strangely to one side, and then fall down, exploding when it hit one of the fuel pipes just under the surface of the hull. The blast-wave from the explosion made him fly a couple of meters more, and bang his head into another pipe. Coughing he managed to get up on his knees, and then on his feet. The hull was leaning heavily, and Impetus half slid down half ran down it. He had gotten a couple of hundred meters when he noticed an X-Wing coming in low. _Far too low_. He managed to jump out of the way, but the slipstream thrust him several meters sideways, making him fly over the edge of the ship. Twigs and branches swirled past him as he fell down, some hitting his legs or arms some his back. Well down on the ground, he was already senseless.

II.

In the beginning everything was grey, as if a deep fog lay across his eyes. At times he saw something moving in front of him, and sometimes it was totally dark and motionless. In the start, he just did not care about it; it was warm and nice where he was. Then time passed, and a strange thought came into Impetus mind. What if his eyes were closed? Then it would not be strange if he did not see anything!

Slowly, he forced himself to open his eyes, finding nothing but darkness in front of him. He reached out his hand, and to his surprise he didn't find it dressed. _Where was he?_ As he reached out further, a wall of glass reached his fingers. His mind cleared some more, wary he looked around himself, finding some blinking lights underneath him. Soon he realized that he wore some kind of mask too. In a couple of seconds he came to the insight that he was _floating _in something.

A wish of getting out of this thing overwhelmed him, and he reached up, finding a solid roof over his head. He examined it for some kind of a handle, and at last found a small button on the side. He pushed it and watched as the top silently slid off. Taking a grip around the edges he heaved himself up, feeling better as the cold air struck his face. He leaned over the edge and took of the mask, taking long breaths of the cold air. Without any clue where he was, he slowly crawled over the edge and jumped down on a tiled floor. His legs felt like he had not used them for a long time, being all wobblish.

Around him were several more tubes with different persons floating around in them. _No sign of the people that put me here._ He thought and sat down, catching his breath. His eyes hurt, even in this dim light. Wearing only a thin overall over his body, he froze as he sat in the dark room. As he gazed at the other men floating around in the tanks, he could only remember seeing two before, the chief mechanic of his ship, Impetus had never tried to learn his name, and Nefas.

He rose again, crossing the arms over his chest as he walked through the room to Nefas' tube. It looked like she was a little more seriously hurt than he. He looked down on a small control panel next to the tank. A small grin appeared on his face as he read "force nullifier" on one of the options. He didn't know how the nullifier drugs had gotten here, but he administered a large potion to Nefas. _No more force choking here_.

Impetus glanced around and found a small door. It had no locks, and with a light push, he opened the door to a dimly lit red walled corridor. It branched off in several directions, and Impetus slowly peeked around one, finding a dead end and a sleeping man sitting by a desk. Impetus could almost not believe his eyes when he saw that the man wore a Rebel outfit. Biting his own knuckle not to gasp too loud he felt his heart jump in his chest. _Was he… at the Rebel base?!? What was he doing here? Did they find him?!?_

Questions popped up in his mind, but he had no answers. Taking a deep breath Impetus walked as quietly he could up to the desk of the assumed watchman and tried to look for some clues where he was. Attached to one of the watchman's hips was a blaster. Impetus slowly upholstered it and then silently slipped a keycard from the desk into his own hand. He needed to find his own clothes now, preferably.

There seemed to be no one around, and he quietly slipped through the halls unnoticed. After moving around for some time, he finally came upon a room labeled as "Storage". Quietly he opened the door with the stolen keycard. He brushed some of the wet short-cut hair from his forehead and quickly entered, closing the door behind himself. The storage was half empty, and filled with plasteel containing mostly junk and repair parts. He methodically searched trough every box until he came upon one that luckily contained all the confiscated material from the "medical casualties", as written on the label. _More like prisoners!_ Impetus thought and dug down into the pile of clothes, finally coming upon a bag simply labeled "_Admiral_".

As he removed the uncomfortable tight overall and took on his own clothes, something hard in his pocket got his attention. He dug down into it and found his MDC link, undamaged! Without his body energy it had shut down, but now it silently hummed to life and started to recharge. He placed it back in his pocket and looked around for a sheath to the blaster. And of course, there were some blasters hanging from the walls. He grabbed an empty sheath and some power cells before he went back and donned his jacket, buttoning it slowly. While doing this, he remembered the bruises on his neck, but as he touched the neck he could not feel the soar and uneasy pain he used to feel when touching it. _What had they been giving him? _Impetus wondered and buttoned up the collar. He could not even feel anything from the last crash, no bruises or anything. He ripped some paper off from a roll and dried his hair somewhat, and then put on his cap. _"_At last, some decency." He murmured and attached the blaster to his hip. He dug down into the cylinder again, finding Nefas light saber. He took it and removed the crystal, throwing it on the floor and then crushing it with his boot. He slowly walked up to the door. Compared to Imperial Battleship standards, this door was tiny. Impetus had always thought of himself as quite short with his 1,8 meters, but this was something else. _Maybe they just didn't have the budget to build larger…_ He considered to himself and snuck out into the hall.

Following the last few weeks of hectic running from and to the crashed Imperial Star Destroyer, Nivean had barely got any sleep at all. And when he did, he constantly dreamt about it anyway. Now, finally, he got some well deserved rest in his private quarters, comfortably sitting and meditating over his bed. Over the last few days, they had dug deeper and deeper into the shipwreck, rescuing all survivors from the crash. They had only about a hundred persons now, a small amount compared to how many people that ship could hold. Seconds later someone knocked on his door, breaking his meditation and made him fall down on the bed.

"What is it?" He asked, standing up and brushing of some dust from his robe. From behind the door someone said:

"We have a situation outside, if you could come out for a second?"

"I will be right there." Nivean answered and walked over to the door, grabbing his lightsaber on his way out. Arriving outside, he found a group of five guards struggling with someone over by the X-Wings. Four more were sitting or lying on the ground, most probably knocked down as they all felt staggered. He hastily walked over there and found the guards struggling with containing a pilot. He was all dressed up in the usual orange uniform and the metal helmet with the yellow vizier.

"What is going on here?" Nivean asked taking a step forward. One of the senior pilots stepped forward and spoke up.

"This guy was trying to fly off without a clearance." He said pointing at the now still pilot. He was staring at Nivean.

"I know people that do that every day." Nivean said. "What is the problem?" The senior pilot frowned.

"His problem, Master Jedi, is that he had programmed his ship to fly straight to the Battleship Stormbringer, our crashed Typhoon's twin ship!" The pilot wrenched his arms, trying to push away the guards.

"Take your hands off me!" He barked.

"You can let him go." Nivean said and walked up to the pilot. "Why would you try to do such a thing?" He asked, searching with his Force in the mind of the pilot. Surprisingly he seemed to have quite a resistance towards it, but something was wrong. The pilot's eyes focused on him from underneath the yellow vizier, as if trying to stare into his mind. But he did not say a word. "Well then." Nivean said. "Who are you, do you work here?" The pilot shook his head.

"I know your type." He said quietly but angry, standing still.

"I am not going to hurt you, and by the way, you have nowhere to go, why struggle?" Nivean said feeling there was something wrong here; he could feel it by the tension in the air. The pilot looked around, as if trying to find some possible way out. When he could not find one, he again turned and looked angrily at Nivean.

"At least, let me get out of this awful outfit." He said, taking a deep breath.

"Don't be disrespectful!" The senior pilot barked at him.

"You be quiet, Captain!" The pilot snapped back.

"What kind of punk are you?!?" The senior pilot burst out. "How dare you even raise your voice at me?!?"

"Please, Captain." Nivean said. "Calm down." Then he turned to the pilot. "You may take it off if it bothers you." It almost looked like the pilot was offended by the long wait for an answer. He begun taking off his helmet.

"This junk really stinks." He muttered quietly, out of earshot of everyone else except Nivean. Out of the helmet came a head with brown hair and a pair of green eyes. Above the right one ran two thin double scars, almost invisible. A wicked glance could be seen in those eyes, making it hard to read his next plan of action.

"Who are you?" The senior pilot asked. "I have not seen you here before."

"Me?" The pilot said while getting out of the outfit. A dress in an olive-gray color began to appear underneath. "I am…" He said and removed the last piece of orange clothing, throwing it away. "Admiral Cky …of the Imperial Navy. But, due to your limited capacity of thinking, I guess it does not mean that much to you." He sneered and took out an olive-grey cap that he had in his pocket, placing it on his head. It was quite quiet now, a few of the men were staring with open mouths, and one actually dropped a cup with some drink in it. The Admiral turned to them. "Close your mouth." He said to a guard next to him. The guard closed it. Now the Admiral turned to Nivean. "I think that the silence speaks for itself, Jedi."

Impetus walked back and forward on the brown, unpolished floor. How different it was from the blank and polished one he had been standing on just a couple of weeks ago! On the other side of the room stood a Jedi, obviously called Nivean, and looked like he wanted to say something really, really smart. Impetus guessed he was a Padawan.

"You say you do not remember anything from after the crash?" He finally asked.

"I do not have the ability to see with my eyes closed, no." Impetus said sarcastically and turned his view outside to the window.

"Still, it does not explain how you got out of the narcosis we gave you. You should still be sleeping together with the rest of your buddies." Impetus turned towards the Jedi again.

"I do not have any … so called "buddies", Jedi." He said, actually trying not to sound too annoyed.

"Oh, I forgot, you Empire people do not have friends." Nivean smiled politely. Impetus stamped his heel in the ground, but did not say anything. "Do you even know how to fly?" The Jedi asked next.

"Do no act like a stupid child, and stop asking questions! Would I even consider flying one of those scrapheap-ships if I did not know how to operate one?" Impetus asked. The Jedi nodded.

"Those "scrapheap-ships" are totally different from the Empire's TIE -fighters, so that means you must have gotten training how to fly one of those things." Impetus felt he swayed for a second, but regained his balance.

"You be quiet!" He snapped and turned towards the window again, crossing his arms as if telling he would not say anything more. In the reflection in the window he could see the Jedi standing and looking for him for a while. _Trying to read my mind, are you?_ He smirked. _That won't work._ And just as he thought, he could just slightly feel a tickle in his spine.

"Leave me." He ordered. The Jedi gave him a strange look.

"What are you…?" He said, but then shook his head and walked out of the room.

III.

The next morning, Impetus woke up when a bright ray of sunlight hit his eyes, making him put an arm over them. He sighed loudly and lay still for a while, pondering on what was supposed to happen next. The answer revealed itself after a moment, when he felt a deep longing for something to eat. He got out of bed and pulled on his trousers and his grey undershirt. Then, after some searching, he found both his ultra-thin socks and took them on, and then finished it with his black boots.

His quarters were small, but enough to cope. This base had some space problems, as they had to accompany another hundred persons, and luckily, Impetus had got a room. _Who says that rank does not have any advantages?_ He thought for himself and looked out the window, out on the open space of the hangars and landing pads.

It was yet early in the morning, but already people were working outside, and by the look of them, it was hot. Turning towards the room again, Impetus walked over and took up his jacket, but then changed his mind, throwing it on the bed. His grey thin shirt would have to do today. He walked over to the door and knocked on it, placing his cap on his head. "What is it?" The guard outside asked.

"Are you serving breakfast on my bed or should we go somewhere?" Impetus asked, crossing his hands behind his back, thumping with his foot on the floor.

"Please step back from the door." The guard said. Impetus stepped one step back and watched as the door slid open. As Impetus walked out of the room and started to walk down the small hall, he said:

"You would make a great customs officer, you know? Step back, step forward please, no you can not bring pet wookies…" The guard looked at him, not sure what to say. "You do not have to point that blaster at me, I will not run away, I promise." He continued. The guard lowered the blaster, but still held it in his hand. They arrived at the mess hall ten minutes later. It bore strong resemblance to a hangar, with tables spread out all over the floor. Soon Impetus and the guard got their own plastic plates with food, and sat down on the left side of the great hall.

"Are you a pilot?" Impetus asked and tried not to look at the food, as he slowly chewed on something that looked like it had been lying in the sun for too long. The guard looked up on him from his plate. He had almost the same colour on his hair as Impetus, but his eyes were blue. Impetus would guess his age to around twenty-five.

"I really should not be talking to you…" He said cautiously, looking almost embarrassed. Then, before Impetus had the time to say anything further, a group of four people approached the table, chatting loudly.

"Why in such a gloomy state, Rendy?" One of them asked and sat down, not even noticing Impetus. The others joined him at the table. "Where have you been? We missed you at our last pazaak game!" The guard, or Rendy, looked up at them, saying:

"I had watch duty." Glancing over to Impetus. The man turned, and now Impetus could clearly see that he was a Cathar, the cat like race.

"You are new?" He asked smiling, showing off his teeth. _They think I'm one of them_. Impetus thought and let out a little laugh. _How much fun he was having here..._

"Not officially…" He said, turning to Rendy.

"He is the Imperial Admiral." Randy said, looking down into his plate again. The table went quiet. All four of the pilots turned their heads and looked at him. This really did not worry Impetus as he often got stared at, especially by his crew on the bridge. Angry stares most of the time. He smirked at his own thoughts.

"Hello." He said, eating some more of the nasty, now cold, breakfast. For a long time there was silence. Then one Twi'lek glanced over the shoulder of one of his comrades, and asked:

"Your name, Admiral? If I may?"

"Well of course." Impetus said. "My name is Impetus Cky." There was a long silence again, then another one of the four, this time a human spoke.

"IMPetus, IMPerial, that is a nice coincidence." He said. The Cathar smiled reluctantly, but then straightened himself and began eating. The others joined soon, talking quietly among themselves. Impetus sat quiet, listening to their talk, and absorbed as much information as he could. _How thing turn out…_ He thought.

The food had been finished long ago, but the small group had remained by the table, chatting to each other. Impetus felt somewhat drowsy after the early awakening, sitting and looking out at the X-wings outside as they landed and flew off. As he sat and listened about how Rendy argued with his friends about who was the best shot at close distance combat, Impetus noticed something moving in the corner of his eye.

He turned around, but did not see anything there; still he knew someone was there. _If not by eyesight, then by smell_. He thought and acted as if nothing. Then he quickly spun around and landed a blow in the area where the abdomen would be. A groan could be heard as Impetus hit something soft. Coughing on the floor was Nivean. Impetus rose from the chair, looking down at him.

"Do not sneak up on me, Jedi." He said. The others around the table looked down at the Jedi, then on Impetus, then back again, startled by the event. After some time on the floor, Nivean rose, trying not to sound too angry.

"How could you know I was there?" He asked, rubbing his belly.

"On intuition I guess. I do not like people sneaking up on me. Usually when people do that, they intend to kill me." Impetus said, massaging his fist.

"Intuition?" Nivean snarled.

"People want to kill you?" Someone from the party asked.

"Of course, as a Commander of a ship, you make decisions. Some are less favorable to some people. They get … upset about it sometimes." The Cathar frowned.

"Upset? You mean killing people. A great deal of people. I read the logs of the Typhoon. You served your Empire well."

"I did my job, Cathar, just as you do every time you shoot down one of our TIE-fighters or one of our troopers." Impetus said.

"I kill soldiers, and soldiers only, Admiral. You…destroy everything." The Cathar responded.

"There are always casualties of war." Impetus said and grabbed his plate. "Did you want something, Jedi?" He asked Nivean, almost sounding disgusted.

"I will visit you later." He said. _They are all the same. _Thought Impetus.

A week had passed since the event in the dining hall. Impetus was sitting at the window in his room, to which he had been confined. He scratched his chin, as the stubble had begun to irritate him now. _Not shaving for a whole week! Impossible bandits! How could anyone possibly hurt himself with a shaver?!?_

Except for eating, he had spent all his time in this room, only having his MDC to pass the time. He had modified it himself while he had been lying in the Imperial Navy's battle fleet, equipping it with recording software, a map function and a person sensor.

Now he had mapped most of the routes of the guards at all times of day. He had been standing hours at the door, listening when the guard was changed, and when patrols returned and left. This way, escaping would be much easier. His plan was simple, get out, get an overall and nick a ship. Last time he had accidentally walked in on a briefing, but now he would sneak out just after four o'clock in the morning. Nobody would ever notice. The only thing he needed now was someone's palm-print to get out of his cell, and a nice and clear day.

Today was a really rainy day, almost hurricane actually, and the rain splashed against Impetus window. Outside, some wet flight coordinators were running over the open space between two of the main hangars. He followed them for a while, but then rose and went over to his small table, sitting down there instead. He felt that he had grown far too restless in this small room, and he began drumming on the table with his fingers, trying to find something to entertain himself with. Some footsteps were heard from outside, and at first Impetus really didn't care about it; people were walking through that hall all the time. Then they stopped, and he could feel the usual draught of air as the door opened. He quickly rose to his feet, looking over at the door.

Nivean was standing in the doorway, saying:

"You have ten minutes." And let someone in, then walked out and closed the door. Impetus straightened himself and then stood still for a while, taking in the picture in front of him. He thought that it was Garavirr, or he knew it, but did not believe it. The man looked around, and caught sight of Impetus.

"Cky!" He almost yelled. "I did not think that you were still alive! The last I saw of you, was when you flew off by that huge blast! I thought it killed you!" Impetus continued to stand quiet by the table, pondering on what was wrong with the man. Garavirr looked down on his clothes, a red shirt and a pair of dark grey trousers, and then said:

"Oh, the clothes? They are much more…comfortable than… the forms." _Yeah, your stomach fits into them!_ Impetus thought.

"Where have you been for the past weeks?" Impetus asked, crossing his arms.

"I have been… around, you see, they are quite nice to me." Garavirr gave up a little smile. "What do you mean nice?" Impetus asked. Garavirr placed himself at one end of the table, looking over at Impetus.

"I will have it straight with you, Cky. After some pondering, I have decided to… stay here, if you understand me…" Impetus stared for a second, putting his hands on the table. "I just came over to ask you if you… have even thought the possibility over?"

"The possibility of defecting to the Rebels???" Impetus snarled, then fell quiet as an uncomfortable thought passed trough his mind. "What have you told them??? Have you…" He was interrupted.

"I had to, so they would trust me, but I think it will serve for a greater good. And these people are so…"

"…so kind and friendly?" Impetus asked, shaking his head. _His own second in command!_ "Yes! I feel appreciated for once." Garavirr said. Impetus ground his teeth for a while.

"I tell you what, I think these people are very nice and kind too, Garavirr, but the idea they stand for… I have experienced it first hand. And I do not want that to happen again, ever if possible."

"I think you got it all wrong." Garavirr said.

"Humans are selfish by nature, and I do what I think is best. I have my reasons, just as you have yours." Impetus said.

"I am sorry to hear that, Cky. Are you sure?"

"I am sure that you never cared a _squat_ about me before, and probably do not care much more now. It was Nivean who set you up to this right?" Garavirr looked at him, but did not say anything for a while, and then he stepped closer to Impetus, putting a hand on his back. Just as Impetus wanted to ask him what the hell he was doing, he felt some kind of dull pain on his back.

"What are you…?" He said, backing off, feeling his legs turn soft. _Sedatives! He must have injected them in his back! _Impetus leaned on a wall, and then fell on his knees. "I will get you for this!" He managed to say through his half paralyzed mouth, glaring at Garavirr.

"I do not think so…" He answered. Impetus body gave up on him, and so did his mind.

IV.

Something smelled very strongly. Impetus opened his eyes, coughing from the pain in his nose. The smell disappeared. Slowly, he turned his head to the side, finding himself back in his bed. Next to his bed stood a woman with something in her hand, she bent down to him.

"Do not worry; it is just to wake you up." She said and walked away to a bag lying on the table, putting the small flask down. Impetus massaged his eyes and rose to a sitting position, trying to force himself to be more awake than he was. In one corner of the room, Nivean was sitting on a chair.

"What did you do that for?" Impetus asked and swung his feet over the edge of the bed. _Why is everyone out to make me unconscious?_ He asked himself.

"We needed a medical examination, and I guessed that you would not agree, so I drugged you instead." He answered, rising. "I will leave you two alone, I have work to do" He walked out.

"I have _work_ to do…" Impetus mimicked him. "… I need to water my _flowers_…" The medical woman chuckled, then put on a more serious face and sat down on a chair by the table.

"I need to ask you some questions, if you do not mind" Impetus put his head into his palms, resting it there.

"You did not get all you needed from me already?" He asked.

"Some things I can't answer just by looking on your DNA or blood." She said. "Now, I noticed you drink sometimes, do you do that often?"

"Never on duty." Impetus answered. "May I be so rude and ask you why?" Impetus glanced at her, a smile playing on his face.

"Every bottle on board is worth ten thousand credits. I do not want it spoiled by some junior officers or…well some _unfortunate_ crash or something." He looked at her.

"I see." She said, nodding. "Good. And smoking?"

"I admit I am guilty…" Impetus said. "I sometimes sit by the fan in my bathroom or by the ships exhaust pipes, but that is rare. As you know, it is not allowed onboard the ships." The medic glanced at him, as if trying to see if he was lying. "Trust me, it is… was my ship." He said. She nodded again.

"I noticed some marks on your arm; do they come from narcotic usage or from time in hospitalization?"

"Both." He said. He had long forgotten about them.

"Another tough question, if I may… How did you acquire them?"

"How?" Impetus asked." I grew up in the Republic… What more do I need to say?" She looked on him for a while.

"Are you using anything now?"

"No, absolutely nothing, have not for a long time. Just some painkillers for the head now and then."

"I can see that." She said, rising.

"Are you leaving already?" Impetus asked and rose to his feet, combing back his hair with his fingers.

"I have a personal question too, but… that is just because I am curious." The medic said, putting away her pads and other things into her bag.

"Well, you are a doctor, are you not? Then you must have patient confidentiality, right? I can probably answer your question." Impetus said and leaned on the table.

"I just noticed that your body does not seem to correspond to your age… if I may be so rude. By the way it is healing and other…medical stuff I guessed your age to somewhere under twenty before I met you. I have only seen similar features in some Jedi, and special kinds of fish." Impetus grinned.

"I am sorry to tell you I am neither. Just like Twi'leks have their head lekkus, I just stay handsome longer, that is all." The medic looked at him, and he felt that she really did not believe him. "I did not get your name." He said, rising and walking over to the window. A blue ship had appeared on the starting pad.

"My name is Leia." She answered, rising. _A blue ship?!? It blew up HIS ship!_

"Whose ship is that?" He asked calmly, putting his hands behind his back.

"That is Nivean's ship, why?" The medic asked.

"Nothing." Impetus said, his anger rising inside him. He felt like he needed to release it on something.

"I leave now." The medic said. Impetus hummed something in return. The door closed behind him and he was alone in the room again. He made sure that she was gone before he bashed his fist into the wall, leaving a bulge in the dull metal.

_He was getting out. Tonight._

It was now six past six in the evening, and Impetus would have to wait for quite a long time until he could sneak out. Again the beard itched, making Impetus rise up and walk around in the small room. He looked on the table on which Nivean had been sitting, and found the palm print that he had noticed the Jedi leaving behind. He took out his MDC and scanned it in.

Again he heard someone outside the door, so he put it back in the inner pocket and straightened himself. To his surprise a middle aged man walked trough the door, followed by Nivean. Impetus overlooked the new man, feeling that there was something about him that was familiar. _Why would they bring the whole zoo over just today?_ He wondered and noticed the long brown-red robes.

"Another Jedi?" Impetus frowned and glanced over at Nivean.

"Is this him?" The man asked, walking over to Impetus, stopping not more than half a meter from him. Impetus cast an eye back at him, and for a while they just stood and stared at each other. The new Jedi had black hair and a pair of small dark eyes.

"Just exactly what are you looking for, Jedi?" Impetus asked with a cold voice and raised his eyebrows.

"Nothing." The man said and backed down. Impetus turned to Nivean.

"Who is this?" He asked.

"It is my Master." Nivean answered, looking somewhat self-proud. Impetus smiled a sad smile.

"And what is he doing here exactly? Looking at my room? Does he wish to borrow it?" The Master suddenly turned and spoke.

"I just wished to have a look at you…" He said and sighed loudly.

"You look disappointed." Impetus noted and crossed his arms.

"I now see that you truly are an Imperial Officer, just as cold as the rest of them…." Impetus frowned.

"What were you expecting?" The man just shook his head. _Some green alien with long_

_ears? _"Just exactly what have you said to this man?" Impetus asked Nivean. He just

shrugged. Then all of a sudden he could feel that small tingling, this time in his palms. He

struggled to keep a cool face and again looked over at Nivean.

"Are you done?!?" He asked, just quickly glancing at the other man. There was something

about him that bothered Impetus.

"We are." He said and opened the door. They both walked out. _I_ _REALLY need to_ _get out_

_of here._ Impetus thought.

"What is it?" Nivean asked his Master, catching up with him in the hall outside the Imperial Admiral's room.

"I just did not expect him to be so…hostile." His Master responded, slightly hesitant. Nivean had never seen him in this mood before. It was almost as he was not pleased.

"Is it him you have been looking for?" Nivean asked. They walked out of the small hall and out on the airfield.

"I…I am quite sure, yes. But he has changed since I last saw him…for the worse." His Master said, and then mumbled something un-hearable. They were now half across the space to their own quarters.

"Wait!" Nivean said. "How can you know him?!?" His Master stopped, turning to him.

"It was even before I got to know you, my Padawan. I was not more but a Padawan myself, following my own Master. Oh well… I can just as well tell you everything and why it is so important that he does not escape!"

He sat down on a bench, overlooking the setting sun. Nivean joined him, looking back towards the compound. He could vaguely see Cky sitting inside at the window, what was he doing at the window all the time? He looked back on his Master.

"So? How do you know him?"

"Well…" His Master began. "To make things simple… Well, you know that my _father_ is actually the _brother_ of the Emperor on Corona, his homeplanet. Well, one day I and my Master had to escort some Coronian officials to Coruscant. Or at least we thought so until we found ourselves hunted by some Rouges. They split our ships up, so half ended up on Naboo together with my Master, and my half in some unknown system. In the end they forced us to land on some small planet. Within moments they captured both me and the rest of the others onboard, amongst them the Emperors _other_ brother and his son. A couple of days later we rebelled against them, managing to take over one of the ships and escape. The only thing we did not notice at that time was that the brother had not made it on board the ship, nor had his son. Of course we retuned, but they were already gone, leaving the brother's dead body behind. Obviously they took his son with them." His Master shook his head.

"You are trying to say…" Nivean said, but was interrupted.

"Yes that… heartless…cold-blooded…thing in there…he is one of the heirs to Corona and my relative." He shook his head again.

"But how did he end up in the Imperial Fleet?!?" Nivean asked.

"I do not know... I was supposed to ask, but he did not recognize me, not that I thought he would. Still it surprised me to see him like that." He rose, as did Nivean. "We shouldn't brood. We will take him to Corona tomorrow, let them decide." Nivean nodded and walked into their barracks.

V.

First, his dreams were black, consisting of nothing but emotions and random thoughts that fly trough everyone's dreams. Memories of his mother and father drifted somewhere on the borders, barely showing a white clad man with brown hair and a pleasant smile on his face when he embraced Impetus' mother that also had white on, a dress probably. It was their wedding, and if Impetus remembered it correctly and he had been standing at the front row with his grandmother, which he only remembered vaguely. _His father that had been killed just because some stupid Jedi Padawan could not do his job!_

He awoke again, not being able to sleep as the anger rushed trough him, but then he became still. He knew now what had been wrong with that other Jedi. Impetus stared at himself in the window, it had been HIM. How could he forget a face like that?!? He hissed and pulled out his pad from his pocket. He searched in the ISB files he had about the base that they had been meaning to attack. It stood nothing about any Jedi, and the Imperial Command usually wrote out such things very carefully. _Then they, or at least he, must have arrived after the crash of the Typhoon_. What business did they have on the planet? A cold feeling gripped his heart, as the answer seemed far too obvious. They were looking for him!

Impetus looked on his watch; he found it three thirty in the morning. Had he slept for so long? _Soon time to go_. He got up and walked over to the bathroom, there he stepped into the shower. It was cold water, so he did not stay in for long, just enough to wake up. Then he dried himself and put on his second set of clothes, just the same as the other ones. He turned off the light and snuck to the door. In his hand, he held a sealed glass of water.

The guard outside was sleeping. It was a wonder no-one heart his snores. Impetus wired up his MDC link and ran it across the pad used for prints. Impetus smirked; the young Jedi had been careless, leaving his prints everywhere. The door opened soundlessly and he stepped out into the chill corridor, quickly jogging to the front door and out onto the airfield. The night was cold, and a yellow moon hung low in the sky. Just as expected, no sentries were seen on the big field, as they changed shifts.

Crouching, Impetus ran over it and jumped over a pair of low bushes, finding himself at the door to the warehouse. The door was magnetically locked, but that was no problem, he just held his MDC over the lock, and heard it open.

It was a large building, but the crates were all marked, and he soon found the right ones. Without losing a second, he pulled on the orange overall, but could not find any helmets. _Who needs them anyway? _He thought and picked up a blaster. The Rebel X-Wings did not have vacuum in their cockpits as the Imperial TIE-fighters, so he did not have to worry. When he had made sure he had everything he walked over to a big box with fuses and opened the lid, looking down on some of the main fuses of the nearby facilities. He opened the glass with water and put it in one of the corners of the box, leaning. It would fall down soon enough.

He snuck out again and closed the door. He hid behind a bush, searching for someone, but all he could see was a lonely guard with his back to him. He sprinted to the hangar. And there it was, an X-wing, perfectly fit and ready to fly. _Wonderful!_ He jogged up to it, running a hand along the hull. Someone has been in a fight recently. Still, it was polished enough to see your reflection in it. Impetus smiled and began the preparations for takeoff.

Nivean slept restlessly and soon found no option but rising and dressing. He could not sleep, and he did not wish to wake his Master up, so he walked out. He shuddered in the cold air. Things were wrong, so much his senses told him, but not if it was his Master or the Admiral that caused it. He looked around and found the hangar bay door open. He frowned and started walking towards it. _What was this all about? _Soon he arrived at the bay door and looked inside. A lonely X-wing was floating in mid air on a jump-start pad, ready to fly and armed with two proton torpedoes. Turned with his back to Nivean was a lone pilot. He was just opening the second hangar door, which energy source seemed to have been turned off, making it easy to open. How was that done?

"Excuse me, but wha…" He shouted, but the pilot instantly turned. Nivean gasped and looked again. Just twenty meters from him stood the Admiral, staring back at him with his cold green eyes. Nivean instantly began running. He could not imagine how this was possible! As he saw that Nivean was running, the Admiral turned on the spot and also rushed to the X-Wing.

Nivean boosted his movements with the force, making himself run faster than any normal human being. He gained some distance, and just as he was about to grab the man, he suddenly stopped. Dazzled, Nivean did not notice there was an arm in front of him. With a _huff!_ he ran into it with his head and unwillingly spun around it, landing on his stomach on the hard floor.

"You're so trivial." The Admiral said and sprinted off before Nivean could catch him.

Impetus had felt his pulse rise to its double as he saw the Jedi. _Now it was about getting out of here!_ He grabbed a hold of the cockpit and flung himself upwards and into the small chair. The Jedi had risen and was running towards him, quicker than anything he had ever seen. He shut the cockpit hatch and turned on the motors. A heavy thrust let him know they were on. He grabbed hold of the steering stick and looked down on the Jedi, now outside his window. Saluting him, Impetus pushed the lever forward, and the ship moved. The Jedi flew off the blank hull and down on the ground. It was amazing that he had even tried to stop a ship. _Not even Jedi's are that powerful._

Gaining some altitude, Impetus gazed outside and locked the two proton torpedoes on the big laser turrets, firing them off the next second. A large blast confirmed that he had stuck home. Impetus looked down once more and grinned at his nice wakeup call before he turned on the extra thrusters and felt himself being pushed back into the seat.

The X-wing quickly rose to the skies, and the compound shrunk in size as he looped his way up into the atmosphere. After a while he could see his crashed battleship, the Typhoon, lying like some kind of toy on the ground. Well out of the atmosphere, the stars started twinkling as the yellow moon bade farewell to him. _This was home._

"Master! Master Infleus!" Nivean yelled and rushed into his and his Master's bedroom. "He is gone!" He was awake in an instant, jumping out of bed.

"What are you saying?!? Where did he go???"

"Up, into space!"

"Into space?!? I said to keep an extra eye on him! How in heavens name does he know how to fly???" Nivean sighed inside.

"I do not know, maybe he was a pilot?" His Master turned to his gear and began putting everything on.

"You stay here, watch the base. I will travel after him." He said and walked up to the door. "But you…" Nivean tried, but was hushed to silence.

"Just do as I say. I will get him." Nivean nodded, but could feel that there was something about this situation that was not adding up.

Impetus checked the monitor again, checking the right coordinates. It was important to enter the right ones if you were going to a system off chart. If you did not enter them properly you might end up in some sun, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. The thing that comforted him most in the small cabin was that it would take over one day in hyperspace to reach his hideout. And he was the only one that knew the exact way, if anyone knew where he was heading; it would take those over two days to reach the same position. A message appeared on his message screen, from his R2 service droid: ERROR IN HYPERSPACE COORDINATES. DESTINATION INVALID.

He shut off the droid and turned on the auto-pilot, putting his black boots up on the instrument panel. _Why not sleep when the chance arises_? He thought and crossing his arms, closed his eyes. He let his head fall back on the seat, realizing what luck he had being here. If he had not fled this night, he would probably have been brought somewhere else, maybe even Corona… He shook his head and took a deep breath; he was not going there just yet. Someday he would need some assistance from there, but not as Admiral Cky. So that would have to wait.

Around lunchtime the next day Impetus again took manual control over the X-Wing. Before the ship laid a small blue planet, filled mainly with oceans and if you did not look hard enough, you might say that it was only sunlit oceans. But once the ship started do descend trough the atmosphere, small islands appeared to the eye. Impetus carefully turned the ship slightly left towards one of the larger islands that was surrounded with small atolls.

He descended even lower and slowed the ship down enough to open the top hatch. He quickly pocketed his cap and felt the warm air flowing at his face. _Who could ask for a better hideout?_ He dodged some cliffs and slowed the ship down even more over a white beach.

This planet had been uninhabited just some ten years ago, but then Impetus had made a proposition to the other Admirals of the fleet and later to the ISB, suggesting the building of a small secret base on this planet. It would only be known to the highest in command on every Imperial Starfleet vessel, and serve as a rendezvous point if anything went wrong. So far, at least fifty persons or so had come through this place. Impetus had even got a medal for that idea. It was hanging in his manor on Balmorra.

He looked down, and soon found the small landing pad that appeared in the middle of the beach, and on it stood maybe five or so stormtroopers. Impetus flew in and landed softly on the pad, taking out his cap again. The sun was burning hot here, and he did not want to have any burns the first day. The stormtroopers raised their weapons, but as soon as they saw Impetus they all became confused.

"Identify yourself!" One of them said and walked up to Impetus.

"I am Admiral Cky, from the Imperial Stardestroyer Typhoon."

"It crashed over a month ago!" The trooper said and raised his blaster.

"Well…" Impetus said and pulled down the collar a bit. _Man, it was hot!_ "…that is why I am here, right?" The trooper hesitated, and then said:

"Right… I will take you to the commander straight away." Impetus nodded and followed him inside.

VI.

"Commander!" The Major of the installation almost cried out.

"Major, I see you enjoy your stay?" The Major smiled a small smile and saluted before shaking Impetus hand.

"Long time no see, Cky!" He said and turned to the great monitor that took up a whole wall of the room, showing all traffic in and out of the system. Currently there were none. "Do you want some refreshments? We have some extraordinary Gan juice here…" Impetus nodded. "So how come you drop by in an X-Wing? I thought you were some Rebel spy or something. When I heard about the Typhoon crashing…I …I didn't know what to think, and when I saw that X-Wing I thought…that maybe you…you know…eh…talked."

"Oh, please, Alben…I sat in a room for over a week, and they did not even touch me. The only torture I went trough was the one of not being allowed to shave."

"I was just going to ask about that…" The Major said. "You look like some kind of Wookie or something." He gave a glass with some sparkling green drink in it to Impetus.

"Thank you, I will remember that comment when you want a promotion." He said smiling and looked over at the troopers now coming in, changed into their private clothes.

"Sorry about our welcome, sir!" One yelled.

"No worries, you could not know." Impetus responded and turned to Alben again. "I will just stay a couple of days, but be ware of anyone that come through and alert me immediately. I think…some Jedi will be here soon, well at least one."

"You know that for certain? Then I will keep an extra eye out."

"Yes, I do. Now, is my room still available?"

"Of course, I have not touched it." Impetus nodded and walked out of the dark room into a blue lit corridor that led to the interiors of the small base. In the end of the hall was a pair of black doors. He put his palm on a screen next to the doors, and a quiet humming could be heard as the door opened.

It was a round chamber with an oval lamp hanging in the middle of the room, spreading a soft reddish light in the room. Around the walls were some small lights too, with a little bit sharper white light. They lit up the walls in a manner that made him remember the skyscrapers on Coruscant, which were also lit up from below by giant lights. At the far end was a double bed covered in black satin and in the middle, facing the door was a desk with a couple of monitors on it, and of course a comfortable armchair behind it.

Impetus walked up to it and left his MDC there, letting it update itself from the wireless connections in his computer. He took out the lightsaber that had been lying in his inner pocket for some time now, and he put it in a drawer in the desk. Spread throughout the room was also some wardrobes and mini-bars, and also some artefacts that had been dug up on this planet.

Slowly he strolled to one of the wardrobes and took off his overall and clothes, taking on a light robe. It was a nice feeling walking barefoot, and he was going to enjoy it for as long as it lasted. He pushed a button on the wall and a small door opened, letting him in to his private bathroom. It closed soundless behind him.

Some time later, Impetus walked out and headed for the wardrobe once again, he took his time choosing what to wear. In the end he chose a pair of loose black pants together with a somewhat lighter shirt and a black belt. It was light and comfortable, a nice change to the olive grey form. He put on his boots again and went over to a statue of a dragon, found on this planet. He stretched his hand into its mouth and pulled a so called slugthrower, often called pistol, out of it. _Exactly where I left it._ Impetus stretched himself and attached it to his belt. With light steps he walked up to the doors and push-opened them, this time without the help of the automatic opening device. _Who needs it anyway?_ He thought and laughed, hearing the doors close behind him.

The next day he wrapped a scarf around his head and walked out to the beach. There two of the stormtroopers were sitting under a shade, playing pazaak and drinking that strange Gan juice. _It must be every man's dream to serve your time in the fleet on a planet like this._ They rose as he came strolling, but he waved elusively with his hand.

"At ease. I will just take a little trip with the ship. I will be back this afternoon."

"Sure thing, sir!" One of them responded and sat down into the warm sand again. Soon they were occupied with their game again.

Impetus strolled over to the X-Wing and started it up. The sun was basking even stronger than yesterday, but the dark clothes kept the heat out better than the lighter ones, and the scarf helped a lot. He had guessed that the ozone layer of this planet must have been nearly destroyed a long time ago, creating this heat on the planet.

Soon the engines started to hum and Impetus lifted the ship slowly, uploading a map of the planet into the ships core memory. The horizon was clear in every direction, showing contours of small islands spread out in the ocean. Among them strange artificially made towers were visible, some leaning, some half under water. They had amazed Impetus for months when he first came here. There had lived people on this planet. He did not really know when, but the archaeological team that worked in the tower he was heading to might have found something that revealed the history of this place. Or at least he hoped so.

Taking the control-stick in hand the turned the ship towards the horizon and also towards the large pale moon that circled around the planet. He knew that just beyond the horizon lay yet another tower, but this one different from the others. It was half submerged under water and had a round shape, with a hole in the centre. The top of it was made of glass, letting the sun rays trough and focusing them into the middle, so as long the sun stayed up; the inside would always be sunlit. He had found it most fascinating, and more fascinating was that what lay inside. He increased the speed, shutting closed the hatch. Soon he was sweeping across the sea, taking in the serene atmosphere as the round tower grew ever larger.

Arriving at the tower, he spurred the ship upwards, flying some kilometres up into the atmosphere, from there he could see the whole tower and the inside, it was like a pond, still as no wind blew there.

Now came the part he loved. He had thought that this was impossible to do with Imperial Starships, but he had been proven wrong not so long ago. He hovered a while over the open space under him, adjusting his position slightly. Then he turned off the motors, feeling the gravitation beginning to work. Of course the rudder still worked, and he held the stick firmly, feeling the ship reel downwards. He passed the inlet to the tower, and with well calculated timing he spun the ship around so the nose faced upwards and turned on the engine on full power. The thrust was immense, but the adrenaline kick of falling overwhelmed it. He tapped the stick again and levelled out the ship. With a splash it fell down into the water and Impetus quickly pushed a button, ejecting a pair of small pontoons, keeping the ship afloat. He watched the water run down the window, and then opened it, glancing around. It was just as impressing as when he had first seen it. The steel walls were now alit with sunshine. Impetus threw off his outer scarf and shirt, taking a deep breath, looking over the perimeter once again. Then he dove into the water.

Nivean watched as his Masters ship flew away from the main base of the small planet. He shook his head and looked over at the captain of the guard, Ebb Aquilla. He was about the same height as Nivean with light brownish hair and brown eyes. His small group of men was now in charge of the prisoners from the crashed ship.

"I do not mean any disrespect, Nivean…" He said. "…but is he sure what he is doing?"

"This time I do not know, Ebb, I do not know."

"If he is not, we are in for some trouble. Cky's an Imperial Admiral, for all the Planets! They will want him back!" They stood in silence for a moment, and then Aquilla said in a lowered voice: "I need to go and see to the prisoners."

"I will come with you." Nivean said and followed Aquilla over the airfield.

The same day, lying in his bunk Nivean made a decision. He was not staying here.

Impetus jumped out of the water and landed on a metal floor in front of a small door. He shook the water from his hair and opened the door. It was a manual one, even with a handle. These were rare, so rare he had only seen them once or twice in his life, except for this. In front of him, a sunlit hall stretched out with windows facing the ocean. _Once this must have been a magnificent building! _He thought and headed down the hall.

He had been amazed when he came here the first time, flying a half broken service ship that he had managed to repair. He had been six years old, and stranded on this planet for a couple of months after that he had killed the Rouges. They had returned to the planet, hoping to find some salvage from the battle between them and the Coronan ships. They did not find any. _Or they did not have time to…_ A wry smile appeared on his face as he strode down the hall and entered a round room. Inside was a mass of shelves. Strolling around were four Imperial Archaeologists, all reading some pad or even a book.

"Good morning." One of them said. The others did not seem to notice him at all. _So devoted to their work so they do not even notice me? _Impetus wondered and walked up to the shelves and took out what seemed to be a roll of paper. Taking it with him, he walked over to the window and sat down in a sofa that probably was a couple of thousand years old. The framework held though, and he relaxed in its soft cushions. Impetus rolled up the thin roll and looked at the craftsmanship of the design. It was thin as a paper, but was still with a touch screen. Why had not anyone come up with this idea somewhere else in this galaxy? He sank even deeper into the sofa.

The Rouges had never even suspected that he could crawl trough their ships air supply system, escaping his cell in a somewhat elusive manor. He had ended up in the main corridor of the ship, and had soon made his way to the cargo hold where they had stashed all their stolen goods, his father's belongings among them. He had been in the cell long enough to come up with a plan, and it was simple really, get to the cargo hold, get his fathers blaster rifle and then shoot all the bastards down. He had almost given up when he finally had found it at the bottom of an old plasteel cylinder. Surprisingly, the blasting down part was going to be the easy one in his plan. Repairing the spacejunk-ship had proven to be the hard one.

The sun was already setting on the horizon when Impetus returned to the base. He changed from his wet clothes into his ordinary olive-grey form and went to join Alben and his family for dinner. The dinner room was not very big with a round table in the middle. In normal cases there would be more officers here and a handful more stormtroopers, but they were all on leave, only Alben's family lived here permanently, and the five troopers left did not have any families to visit.

Impetus waited for Geira and Havey, Albens wife and daughter, to sit down before he seated himself on one of the free chairs. A service robot came and served the food. It was old, but still held some kind of old charm. On one of its white plates, an old number could be seen. It was in a faded blue colour and could be read as SR22.

"SR22?" Impetus asked, turning his head to the robot.

"That is not…" The droid started, but Impetus interrupted him.

"I do not really care… Could you get me some gan juice; I do not want to drink water…"

"I do not know if we have any left." The robot said.

"Go search then!" Impetus said. _Nostalgia…That is probably why they keep it…_ Impetus thought and took off his cap, placing it on the table next to him. A moment later a waling could be heard over the table.

"Noooooo… I do not want to…eat THAT!!!" It was Havey, pointing at something that resembled to the breakfast Impetus had eaten in the hangar. Impetus looked down on his own plate and swallowed. He had the same on his plate.

"Ahhh…" Geira said and looked at Impetus. "…is it not lovely to have kids?" She again turned to the little girl. "Havey…just ask Admiral Cky…"

"Impetus…Impetus is enough…" He said.

"… just ask Impetus how good this is! It is very tasty is it not?" She turned to Impetus. So did Havey, still looking like her fuse would soon burn out. Impetus put on his political face, one of many years of experience.

"It is very good, Haley… Just try it." Haley looked over at her mother again and then tried the food. She shone up in a bright smile.

"Wow! Mom! This is really good!!!" Impetus again looked down on his plate, trying to force a smile on his face. He glanced over at Alben, eating the food with immense speed. _How can somebody like goo like this??? _Alben looked up at him and smiled.Impetus slowly exhaled and began eating, holding a pleasant smile on his face throughout the whole dinner.

When the dinner was over, Alben excused himself and left the room. As always, he needed to check on the patrols outside before retiring for the night. The service droid came rolling in again, this time with Gan juice. Impetus took one of the glasses and tasted it. Then he took another zip. Far much better than any of that goo he just had for dinner. Some time later, when the glass was empty, Impetus sat listening to Geira's and Havey's talk about some holo-show from Coruscant when he heard a little thump. Just a thump, in the sand. _There were not supposed to be any thumps in the sand! _Impetus got out of the chair and grabbed his cap, quickly running out into the blue lit corridor and out on the small beach.

The sun had set, leaving only the glow of the now yellow-green moon on the beach. Impetus drew his pistol and looked around. There was another ship, it was carelessly parked in the sand, and obviously Rebel. He could judge that from the rust and stain marks on its wings. He looked over at the outpost, the guards were not there. Hastily he moved over to the small shade where the two soldiers had been in the morning. They were now lying on the ground. Once again Impetus looked around, nothing. He bent down and removed the white helmets from the troopers. Both of them were still breathing! But why not just kill them? Behind him, he could hear someone come walking in the sand. He spun around and pointed his pistol in the direction of the noise. In front of him was Alben, held by his throat by that other Jedi.

"You!!!" Impetus yelled and got up on his feet. A blue sabre flashed to life.

"So I finally found you!" The Jedi called out from behind Alben, who looked like he was half scared to death. They had slowly moved out on the beach.

"What do you want, Jedi?!?" Impetus forced out of himself, trying to restrain himself from firing the pistol.

"We need to talk, you and I." The man said. He put the sabre next to Albens arm, burning trough his sleeve and touching his arm. He screamed out and tried to get away. Impetus glanced up to the entrance. There Geira was standing, staring at the scene that played out in front of her. Concentrating, Impetus took aim and fired directly at the hand in which the man held his lightsaber. With a yelp he dropped it into the sand.

"ALBEN, GO! GET INSIDE!" Impetus called and charged at the Jedi pulling him down into the still warm sand. He watched as Alben got up and stunned managed to get over to the door. Geira was able to catch him. "GET HIM INSIDE!!!" She grabbed him and got him inside, closing shut the doors behind her.

The next thing Impetus saw was a boot in his face, with a _humph!_ he rolled backwards and landed in the sand. The humming sound of a lightsaber coming alive could be heard not far away. He crawled up and managed to dodge the blade coming at him in full speed. "You must move faster than that to get me!" Impetus yelled and fired off a couple of shots. One of them went right trough the blade of the sabre and cut a small rift in the red-brown robe of the Jedi.

"What is this?!?!" He called out turning towards Impetus. "Why will you not just die?!? I mean, how can _anyone_ survive a fall from the bridge of an Imperial Stardestroyer?!?" The Jedi's sabre was now almost the only source of light except for the moon, shining in a bright blue colour.

"I can." Impetus answered and flip-jumped over the head of the man, once again dodging the blade. "You underestimate us non-Jedi." This seemed to make the man even angrier. "Wart Monkey!" He called out.

"Is that your name?" Impetus said. "How good, because I forgot it long ago!" Impetus fired off a couple of rounds more, watching as the Jedi tried to dodge them without the protection of his weapon.

"You know its Infleus… My dearest cousin. I sure wished you were killed together with your father!" He said and charged straight on at Impetus.

"Why do you want to get rid of me that much, huh? I will not come back to Corona!" Impetus half-yelled at him, when suddenly he felt like he had run into a glass wall. A force pushed him backwards and made him fly some metres back, landing with a splash into the warm ocean water. For a moment water surrounded him as he sank down, but he paddled his way to the surface and spat out the water from his mouth. A blue lightsaber was flying his way. Drawing a quick breath he dove, swimming downwards into the dark water. The water above his head seemed to boil for a second, but soon faded.

The beach lay not far from where he was, and Impetus swam up as close as he could without being detected. When the Jedi finally saw him approach, he rushed out of the water and kick-jumped him straight in the chest. The Jedi lost his balance and fell down into the sand, losing grip of his lightsaber. It rolled away into the sand. Impetus threw himself after it, just as the Jedi. Just as he was about to grip it a strong pressure fell on his chest and felt as he was flung sideways against a rock wall.

Impetus crashed into it, losing his breath as he fell down on the sand again. He felt warm blood sipping from his mouth and forehead. He got up and barely managed to catch the hand of Infleus, stopping the sabre a couple of centimetres from his face.

"You just do not understand do you?" The man whispered. "As soon as I turn up with your body on Corona, I will be the next in line to inherit the throne. Then I will just get rid of your uncle and I will become Emperor!" Impetus winced as the Jedi applied even more pressure on the sabre. With his last powers Impetus managed to get his feet under the body of the man and flung him away into the sand. He got hold of his blaster again and got up; preparing to end the battle, when to his shock another blue sabre appeared, just under his throat. He made a stumbling stop in his steps.

"Lower that blaster!" A voice called out. Impetus knew that voice, he turned his head slightly. To his right, half concealed in shadows stood Nivean.

"How long have YOU been here!?!" Infleus called out.

"I arrived just a couple of seconds ago, enough to see you trying to kill my Master!" Nivean turned his head to Impetus sandy face as he was about to say something. "Do not say anything!" Nivean yelled in his face. "Master get up, we got to get out of here before those stormtroopers wake up!!!" The man got up, staring at Impetus, backing away to his ship slowly. Impetus stared back, but due to the lightsaber at his throat, he could not do much. _Lady Luck just was not on his side today! _As the Jedi got on the ship, Nivean turned his attention back to Impetus.

"Do not try following us! " He said and made a sudden move with his sabre. It cut into Impetus right thigh, making him fall down on his knees crying out in pain. Before he could think about anything else, he felt a thump to the back of his head. The whole world faded from his eyes, and the last thing he felt was the rumbling of a motor and the taste of sand in his mouth.

VII.

The next time he opened his eyes, he found Alben looking down at him. The taste of sand was gone from his mouth, and instead of seeing stars he now looked up at a ceiling. He found that he could only look straight with one of his eyes. He touched his forehead with his hand, feeling bandages across his forehead.

"Quite a bump you got there, Admiral." Alben said, his voice ringing in Impetus ears. He slowly rose to a sitting position, feeling his whole body ache. He had never realized that he had been so torn up during the fight. _Well, some things you do not notice. _He thought and touched his thigh, it was painfully soaring and wrapped in bandage. He made a grimace.

"We managed to find some kolto in the fridge…" Alben said. "Still, you are a lucky bastard not to have the leg cut off."

"How long have I been…here?" He asked.

"Just two days." Alben said. "Yesterday you woke up, but you probably do not remember it, huh?"

"No, I do not." Impetus said and tried to touch his head again. A soaring pain burst through his forehead.

"Some painkillers?" Alben asked and threw a small box to Impetus. "You know…" Alben continued as Impetus put some of the pills into his mouth. "…yesterday when you awoke, you had no idea who you were. The guards even managed to convince you that you were a Rebel spy."

"Are you serious?" Impetus laughed out, then winced as he felt his leg moving.

"I was here…" Alben said. "You should have seen it! You acted as if you never seen an Imperial officer before!" Impetus smiled and thought for a while. Now that Infleus knew that he knew about his plans, where would he go? A chill ran down his spine. He was heading towards Corona. What was he supposed to do? Let him kill off his uncle just as his father? A plan suddenly started to appear in his mind.

"What is it?" Alben asked.

"Alben, go check in the storage compartment of the X-Wing for some Rebel flight-overalls, the orange ones you know?"

"Why would you need one now?"

"This guy that held you by the throat is going to…kill a rather important person. I need to stop it, and fly to Corona."

"Corona?!? That is as Rebel as it can be! What person?" Alben looked lost. Impetus sighed and considered his choices, he could not really make this alone, he knew that, and Alben was one of his most trusted officers, and maybe even friends. The best was that he already knew that Impetus was not really from any Imperial world.

"I'm from Corona, Alben." He said. Alben stared back at him.

"Ok, you already told me you did not come from a world controlled by the Empire… But Corona?"

"Do not worry Alben that was the easy part… The person he wants to kill is my uncle. As you can see, I need to go there… with you or without you."

"Ah!" Alben said, and then nodded his head. "That is serious business. Of course I will come! I will go check those overalls right away." He rose and walked out of the room. Impetus watched him go and then braced himself, rising out of bed. His leg did not hurt as much as he expected and he slowly pulled on his black clothes. To his relief he found his blaster in the holster. He was glad that he had not used Nefas' lightsaber in the fight. _That was going to be a surprise._

Impetus slowly limped over to his room and carefully closed the doors behind him before he went over to his desk, pulling out a drawer and retrieving the sabre. With it in hand, he moved on to the same dragon statue as before and took out one of its golden eyes. He walked back and sat down into his armchair, putting up his leg onto the table. He turned the sabre and opened it, putting the eye into the hilt. He overlooked it and then stretched out his arm, pushing a button on the side. A golden blade sprung up from the hilt, making a humming sound. It felt far to light in his hand for his liking, so he decided to wave around with it. It hummed some more as he made some eights and circles with it.

This did not really interest him that much, and he grabbed a fruit and threw it up into the air. He twisted his wrist some times and them watched as the fruit fell down into his knee, it was split into four pieces. He frowned and turned off the sabre, putting it into his belt._ He preferred blasters_.

Impetus was finished eating the last piece of fruit when Alben returned with two orange overalls and two matching helmets.

"How did you make it over here?" Alben asked putting down the overalls and helmets.

"I walked." Impetus replied. "Anyway, there is no time to waste. We must get going. Now." Alben frowned and took up an overall.

"This one is bigger, I will take it." He knew better than to argue with his commander. Ten minutes later they were all dressed up and ready to go. "Meet you up there…" Alben said and sprinted over the hill towards the other X-Wing that Nivean had left behind when he ran off. Impetus got in to the one he had flown here and started up the motors. One of the stormtroopers waved him off as he cleared off. Well up in space he waited for Alben before he set in the coordinates that would take them to Corona.

"You ready?" He asked over the head-link.

"Yeah, let's roll! Sir!" Alben said. They lined up, and soon accelerated into hyperspace. It was relaxing to look at the hyperspace patterns, but Impetus was already planning what to do next.

Corona was a planet that few knew about, its position was not close to any trade-lane nor did the Empire really care about it… it was too remote to be cared about right now, and for that Impetus was glad. He really did not have any wish to invade his own home-planet. The lush vegetation gave it a dark green colour around the equator and closer to the poles, the brownish green planes stretched out, occasionally interrupted by dark blue oceans. The capital was placed on a peninsula on the north forest border. From there, all the other roads stretched out to the other towns. It hadn't changed much over the years, as the planet did not lack population or recourses as many other planets, and therefore had no need to expand.

"Where are the spaceports?" Alben asked and started to descend into the atmosphere, closely followed by Impetus. They had made it through the border checks nicely and Impetus guessed that no one ever suspected them.

"It is on the plateau north of the capital, Solice. We will probably see it soon." Impetus responded and flew down next to Alben. "Try not to look too Imperial, ok? We do not want any trouble. Just smile and nod, laugh at their jokes and all that…"

"I will… eh… try." Alben managed to squeeze out of himself.

"You got it, mate!" Impetus laughed out and refocused his attention to the flying. Underneath them was dense jungle, seemingly endless. Soon towers began to appear on the horizon, just as Impetus remembered them; they were golden-white and not really what you would expect of a capital. They were not kilometre high and thin as needles, as in most other places. Here they were sturdy built and not over a hundred metres high, not that anyone needed tall towers here.

"Hey, hey... hellooo-oo!!!" Someone said through the head-link. Impetus looked to his left and saw another band of X-Wings, to be accurate four of them, joining him and Alben. Impetus could see the lead pilot in his cockpit.

"Hello there!" He responded.

"Are you going down?" The pilot asked.

"Yes, so are you I guess?"

"Affirmative, just out from Hoth. Things are pretty calm there." _Hoth?_ Impetus thought. _Who would like to live on Hoth?_ He quickly pulled out his MDC and made a note on the planet. He would have to pass this on.

They were approaching the city now, and soon ascended some hundred metres, just in case they would meet any of the local transportation vehicles, the "Dragonites". They were common on the planet, living in the jungles, and possessed an amazing intelligence, almost comparable to human.

Solice was a medium sized town, filled with canals and different waterworks that regulated the flow of water out to the fields. The houses were mostly coloured brown or white, with granite or marble pillars. Impetus noticed that red roofs had become popular. After the city, a small plateau stretched out. On top of it was a built-into-the-wall airbase, lit up with strong white lights. Ships of all sizes, combined with occasional dragonites could be seen lifting and landing. The group landed on top of the plateau to Impetus great relief. If they would have landed in one of the docks it would have been much more difficult to escape, if such an action would be needed. Impetus checked all instruments and made sure everything was in order before he opened the hatch, jumping down on the warm stones.

The sun was setting, but it was still hot on the landing pad, as it had no shades. Soon Alben joined him. His blonde hair was in total disarray after the long flight and of the use of the helmet. Impetus did not know if he had ever seen Alben like this before. Something told him he would normally never allow himself to be so untidy. A quick hand through the hair and a grouchy glance from the slender face confirmed his suspicions.

"A long flight?" One of the other pilots walked up to the pair. Impetus nodded.

"Recon flight, you know… Not a moment of rest until hyperspace."

"I sure do! Name's Archonel, Tarion Archonel." The other pilot responded and reached forward with his hand. Impetus shook it.

"I am… Impetus. And my friend…Alben." He had known this guy, a long tome ago. They had practically spent their whole childhood together. _Lady Luck seemed to be on vacation_. Impetus tried to keep a natural smile on his face, hoping his old friend would not recognize him. Tarion shook hands with Ablen. Impetus blessed his maker for not taking off his helmet.

"Impetus, huh? Had a friend with the same name…" Alben glanced over, but Impetus gave him a hard glance.

"We must be off, a couple of hours report writing waits…"

"Same here…" Tarion said and half turned. "See you around!"

"Your friend ?!?" Alben almost cried out as they walked behind the X-Wings. "How many friends do you have on this planet???" Impetus sighed and checking that Tarion was gone, took off his helmet.

"Not many that remember me, I hope." He replied. "I have thought about this, and if you do not mind, I will leave you with the ships."

"That is a good idea, I would just get lost." Impetus nodded.

"You can…walk around up here, look around, and melt in. I have no idea how long I will be gone, but there is at least free food. If anything comes up, I will call you." Alben just nodded. They walked away in separate directions; Alben towards the mess and Impetus to the transport ship that went down to the city.

It was quite crowded; all sorts of people were trying to catch the ride down. Impetus managed to get a spot in one end, facing a big window. Among the passenger were pilots, all clad in the same orange dress as him, there was people that worked at the station and just normal people. He grabbed a pole as the ship started moving descending to the landing pad somewhere in the city. Someone came and took a place next to him; it was an old man, and a service technician by the looks of his dirty, oily clothes. He turned to Impetus, nodding.

"Heard you were from Halavyn?" Impetus continued to smile. _The transponder codes must be changed_. He thought.

"Yes, a mess down there…" He said. The old technician nodded his head seriously.

"Did you see the Typhoon come down? We watched it a couple of hours later here, you know."

"I sure saw it, first hand." The man shone up in a grin.

"That is right! Finally we got them, the bastards! Have you seen how they are? My friend even told me he had seen one of them drink blood… I am sure they eat each other onboard those huge ships they have! My friend…" He began again, but Impetus interrupted him.

"…is a real stupid guy. I bet most of them are nicer than you are." Impetus smiled and patted the man on his back, then braced himself as the ship touched down and the doors opened. Before the man had any chance to respond, Impetus was gone.

Some hours later, Impetus had taken off his orange overall leaving him in his more common black outfit. The night had fallen swiftly and the air had cooled. The stars shone down on him as he crouched down behind a tree and hid the orange overall in a crack. _Good thing trees do not change._

He was now in the Royal Palace Gardens, a large area of woods and open area behind the Palace where he had played as a kid. He checked the blaster and sabre at his side and rose slightly. The Palace was in front of him, and as always there was not a soul in sight. It would take him about fifteen minutes to get to the Palace itself. He started walking, without any hurry, taking in the night sounds as he walked. Somewhere halfway up to the Palace, he heard someone behind him. And he was quite sure it was not a frog.

He slowly turned, taking out the sabre. He put his finger on the button, and waited. Soon he could see a silhouette against he city lights. It was quite obvious who it was.

"Nivean…should you not be acting lapdog to Infleus right now?" He said with a smirk on his face, looking around himself. _Plenty of grass to move on._

"My master told me to stay here. To keep you out." Impetus took a deep breath.

"And what did he tell you?" He asked.

"Simply that you were here to kill the royal family. I will not let you." Niveans lightsaber shone up in the well-known blue colour. "Drop your blaster." He said. _He thinks I have a blaster??? Stupid kid! _Impetus spun it around on his palm.

"I think you have it the wrong way. He is going to kill the royal family; I am here to save it."

"You lie." Nivean said and moved forward. "Drop it!" Impetus took the sabre in his right hand.

"Defend yourself!" He barked and lit the golden blade. Half a second later he crashed in to Nivean with full force, pushing him backwards several metres. Nivean barely managed to keep up with the blows. With a quick flip of his boots, Impetus found himself behind the Padawan. The two blades clashed again, giving s quick green light. Impetus made an artistic spin once more before finally getting Nivean down on the ground.

"Just give up and walk away." He said. It was obvious that Impetus technique was far superior the basic moves that Nivean played with.

"What are you?!?" Nivean cried out and tried to get up, only to get pushed down back by Impetus boot.

"You Jedi would call me a Sith..." He frowned. "..and the Sith would of course call me a Jedi. But to tell you the truth, I am neither."

"What ?!?!" Nivean said.

"Give me your sabre, Nivean. It is of no use to you now…"

"I can not!!" Nivean said, still on the ground.

"Give it to me." Impetus said harshly. "If you do not I will have to cut your fingers off." Nivean dropped it.

"Thank you". Impetus said and quickly grabbed it, and then threw it into the air. With a quick movement of his wrist, he split it into half with his blade.

"No! My sabre!" Nivean caught the two pieces. "Why did you do this?"

"Why?" Impetus let Nivean go. "When did you make it? When you were ten? It is worthless." Impetus grinned.

"What?!?" Nivean said again. _He's starting to sound like a repeating doll_. Impetus thought.

"I mean, Nivean, how can a ten year old know how to make a fully functional sabre, and then use it all his life? It's like asking someone to build a fully-functional starship when he is twenty. I am sure someone can do it, but not…you. Not me either. It is just stupid." Nivean actually seemed to think about it for a while, sitting on the ground. Impetus turned off the sabre and attached it to his hip. "Let me ask you something." He said. "You are… what twenty three?"

"Twenty-five."

"Twenty-five it is. Do you think you know a lot compared to us others?"

"Compared to most, yes." Nivean answered, confused by the question.

"So you do not think you have missed out on some of life's more important things?" Impetus gave Nivean a hand and pulled him up.

"No, I do not know anything important I have missed." Impetus grinned and looked him in the face.

"Ok, when was your first kiss?" Nivean blushed, trying to find somewhere else to look. "I will make it easier for you…your first speeder? No? What about your first girlfriend? The first time you fell in love? The first time you earned some money? As you see, you have not lived a day beyond your tenth birthday…if you have such a thing as a birthday parties of course!" Impetus looked over at the castle. "The Jedi Council is gone long ago, just as every honourable Jedi. Do not make it hard to yourself and drop the illusion, nobody really needs them anymore." Nivean sneered at him. "You make your way to the spaceport and wait there. If you are not there when I arrive…it is worse for you. It is your choice. I have to run." Impetus continued, then turned and began jogging to the castle, leaving Nivean standing on the ground, holding the pieces of his sabre, looking even more confused.

VIII.

The dining room in the Palace was dark; its marble floor and walls reflecting the only light coming from the hallway. Impetus looked around and reluctantly placed his palm on a screen next to a small garden door. It lit up with an eerily blue glow and read off his palm. He closed his eyes, praying the old thing still worked. This door was one of hundreds, leading into the palace. Nobody used the doors except the gardeners in daytime and of course the servants. Impetus had used them to sneak out when he was younger, nobody ever noticed.

The computer inside seemed to think for a while, then a confirming _ping!_ could be heard. Impetus exhaled, the thing obviously remembered him. A soft, silent voice spoke up from the machine. "Welcome, sir. Long time no see." The door slid open. _Long time no see?_ It used to say that when he had been gone one day. Obviously a day or thirty years did not matter to it…

He snuck inside and waited for the door to shut. The stone floor was cold, and reminded him of the metal deck of the Typhoon. Shaking his head, he exited the room. The dimly-lit long hall connected many of the most important rooms of the Palace, and sleepy black clad guards patrolled the whole length of it. As far as Impetus could see, there were five of them. There was no obvious way he could sneak past them.

Slowly he stood up, adjusted his clothes and walked out. Keeping his head low he walked with quick and firm steps, something he had learnt by promenading backwards and forwards on the bridge of his ship. The whole thing worked though and he made it to the end of the hall, entering the private parts of the Palace.

Another hall was in front of him now, slightly smaller and with ancient carpets on the walls and floors. He slowly walked down the dim hall, trying to remember where his uncle, the Emperor, slept. It had been next to his mother's bedroom, he walked that way. He even passed his own bedroom, but decided that he really did not have time to go in.

Some turns later, he finally came upon his mother's bedroom, the door was firmly shut. Impetus stopped, listening for any sounds. A vague melody could be heard from the bedroom to the left; he silently walked over there, looking in through the half open door. He could hear lowered voices now, but not see anyone. He snuck in and walked in the shadows along the wall until he got a table in sight. Around it sat… he looked closer, biting his lower lip. One man, his uncle, easily recognized by the beard, next to him his wife. The third was his own mother, seemingly not aged one year since he saw her the last time. His heart started to beat faster, how he wanted to go join them! He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He could not join them, it was quite simple really. _He could not_. When he opened the eyes again, he could see another shadow entering trough the door. He could already smell who that was.

Slowly he took out his sabre and put it in his hand once again. He could not just rush out and strike the egregious man down. That would just look to bad. The thing that worried Impetus most was that he must let Infleus do the first move to convince everyone that both of them were not assassins… Impetus crept up closer, and waited.

Not many minutes later, Infleus rose from his position behind a marble pillar and slowly walked up to the table. The Emperor first noticed him, slowly nodding to him. The others turned.

"What takes you to this part of the galaxy?" He asked Infleus, bidding him to sit down.

"I would rather stand." He said. Impetus braced himself; something was going to happen, soon. He saw Infleus lower his hands slightly. "I just came by to pick something up that has escaped me for some time. " He said.

"What could that be? We do not have much here…"

"Oh…" Infleus said and laughed out, "…sure you do, uncle, your head!"

"What?!?" The Emperor cried out.

Impetus was already on his way forward, if the madman was going to kill the Emperor, he wasn't going to leave any witnesses! The blue sabre shone up in Infleus hand. Impetus realized he had only one shot at this. If he missed… he did not want to think about it. A second later he jumped up, rolling over Infleus and lit up the sabre. The man was caught somewhat off guard and stumbled back as Impetus started to hit him with his sabre. Still, he got back to his state-of-mind quite soon, and a fierce battle erupted as the cousins clashed together.

A quick look at the door showed guards already running towards the bedroom. Infleus seemed to notice this too and slammed shut the doors with a wick of his hand.

"Where did you come from???" The Jedi managed to press forward and flung Impetus to the wall with a force push. Impetus fell on one knee, but rolled away as the next blow came, swinging his sabre in an elegant bow. The blade managed to rip a hole in the tunic and cut open a small wound on Infleus arm. He backed away slightly, giving time to Infleus to get up. The party of three that had dined in the room had backed away to the windows, probably not knowing what to think. Raised voices could be heard from the other side of the door.

The fight continued with parrying and attacking, spinning around and jumping, using everything around to gain an advantage. The favour seemed to lie on Impetus, which was both faster and more agile than his older opponent, and he was beginning to hope he could actually win this when the Jedi made an impossibly fast move and managed to grab Impetus right arm and hurl him down on the floor.

"Do you really intend to beat me?!?" The Jedi whispered into Impetus ear before he twisted his arm around. For a second it blackened before Impetus eyes and he fell down screaming in pain. The sabre fell out of his hand and spun down on the floor. A hard kick made him roll over the floor. Impetus clutched his broken arm to his chest and waited for the Jedi to charge again.

And just like clockwork, he charged again, probably sure about that victory was his. _So overconfident… _Impetus thought and put his working hand to the ground, waiting for him to get a little closer. And at the precise moment Infleus began lowering his sabre, Impetus jumped up with both feet, smashing them into his chest. The man stumbled backwards. Impetus got up and pushed his palm into his face. A crack of bone breaking could be heard. Infleus fell down on the floor, dead. _Who could think that basic hand-to-hand could win against Jedi arts?_ Impetus smirked and picked up his sabre. His broken arm brought him back to reality.

For a moment he just stood there, drinking air and feeling sweat run down his face, not thinking about anything. Then he realized where he was. Slowly he turned to the table, it was broken in half. Had they been there too? The Emperors wife seemed to have passed out, as he was holding her in his hands. The pain from his arm was killing him, and he went over to a small sofa and sat down. He needed to rest, at least for a second.

"Do you have any painkillers?" Impetus asked and rolled up his right sleeve, looking down on his arm. He found the bone pipe sticking out from the arm, making the whole arm bend in a strange angle. He tried to touch it, but a wave of nausea made him stop. Without painkillers he would not get anywhere.

He looked around in the gloomy room, wondering if they knew who he was. His mother walked up to him.

"Here are some. I found them in the bathroom. I do not know if they are what you need." She gave him three stimulants.

"These will do." He said, glancing at her.

"Let me help you with that. You will not be able to inject them yourself." She said. The Emperor walked over to Impetus, having left his wife in the bed.

"Do you know what that was about?" He asked.

"He was trying to take over the throne, simply. I stopped it. If you died, he would inherit it." Impetus said, handing the stimulants to his mother.

"I could never imagine him doing such a thing…" The Emperor said.

"Roll up your sleeve." His mother told him. Impetus slowly rolled it up. God he was tired, and needed to get out of here soon, before they got the doors open. Sensing a small sting on his arm, Impetus felt his pain subdue.

"Who are you?" The Emperor asked. The inevitable question came at last.

"Obviously nobody." Impetus replied and looked down on the floor, fetching a small holo-video from his pocket. It was his fathers, and he had somehow always meant to return it here, one way or another.

"Do I know you? I'm sure I have seen you somewhere before." His mother asked, throwing away the used stimulant.

"Even if you have, you do not know me anymore, _that is a fact_."

"What do you mean with that?" The Emperor asked. Impetus mother sat down again, letting out a sigh. She turned to him again.

"What do you have on your arm?" She asked, pulling up his sleeve some more. Impetus froze. _His tattoo, he had forgotten all about it!_ It was the one that he had gotten during his years in the Imperial Academy. It was a decorated Imperial insignia with his class number under it.

"Nothing." He said and put his left hand over it. He felt no pain anymore.

"It is the Imperial mark!" His mother almost cried out. "You are…an Imperial! A spy?!?" Impetus got up on his feet and grabbed his mother's hand pushing the holo-video into her palm. He saw his uncle taking up Infleus' sabre.

"Do not move, Imperial scum!" He said, and ran over to the doors. Impetus quickly glanced at his mother, and then ran over to a door leading out into the garden. It had the same security system as the one he had used to get in. "You will not get out!" His uncle called and opened the doors. "The windows are hardened and you can not use the system!" A bunch of guards burst into the room, lead by some guy in trousers and an undershirt. He had probably been sleeping in Impetus old room, as the door had been opened.

Impetus pushed down his palm on the scanning screen and after what seemed as an eternity the familiar blank voice said:

"Welcome, sir." The door opened. The guards seemed confused.

"What?!?" His mother said, getting up. The man in trousers walked up to her. He was holding a blaster in his hand.

"Are you allright, mother? " This time Impetus was stunned. _Mother?_ She looked at the man then back to Impetus, looking even more confused. Impetus training took over, and he grabbed hold of himself rushing out tough the door._ He needed to get back to Alben! _The guards were quick to follow, but Impetus jumped over a bush, surprised over the complete lack of pain in his arm. He rushed trough bushes and under trees, hearing as the guards voices faded. Minutes later he had lost the guards and sat course to the spaceport.

IIX.

The night was still young, and the warmth from the sun had not yet disappeared from the walkways surrounding the Palace. On the west horizon, the two moons of Corona began to rise. The larger one was named Virida and had a green colour while the smaller one, called Punicea was purple. They were called the "Oculi Cealis" in Old Coronian, meaning "Heavens Eyes". Impetus looked up on them for a while, taking in the serenity of the scene. He had managed to twist the bone into a more comfortable position and wind some cloth from his sleeve around it. The stimulants had worked perfectly, and he could not yet feel any pain, only some tingling in his fingers. He took a deep breath and walked down the empty street, he needed to find some means of transportation to get up to the spaceport…He reached down into his inner pocket with his left hand and retrieved his MDC.

"Major Alben." He said quietly, waiting for the pad to patch up a connection. Some seconds later Alben's face appeared. Behind him was a bunch of people, some laughing, and some drinking. Some wild music could be heard from somewhere. "Alben, where are you exactly?" Impetus asked.

"What? Wait a minute!" Alben half yelled and put an ear-piece on. "Yes? Now I hear you…"

"Where are you?" Impetus repeated his question. "Are you DRINKING?" Alben smiled half a smile.

"I am still in the mess, obviously there is some kind match or something, everybody is happy. Yes I am drinking… I am blending in, like you said." Alben shone up into a very out-of-character smile.

"I think you have hade quite enough, get over to the ships and start them up. I will be joining you soon." Alben nodded his head. _He's half drunk!_ Impetus thought and closed the pad again. By the feeling in his gut, he soon would need a drink as well, or maybe a dozen. It had not been easy reliving all those memories in such a short time. Looking up from his feet, he spotted a stable down the road, a hangar full of dragonites.

Quietly he snuck up to the corner and made some clicking noises with his tongue and teeth. A small green dragonite noticed him; happy to have something to do he walked up to Impetus. Impetus nodded him out some more.

"You know the way to the Spaceport?" A quick clicking sound came as a response. "Good. Take me there, please." The dragon bent down and allowed Impetus on his back. It was a comfortable skin saddle with a reddish colour and some decorations. "I am ready when you are." He said.

"Where are you going?!?" Impetus turned, seeing a woman with long black hair and the characteristic light-purple eyes of the Coronians. _Probably the owner of the stable._ "Apples, what are you doing? Get back here!" The dragon looked at Impetus who simply smiled a small smile, shrugging.

"Do you not wish to fly?" The dragonite frowned happily, and took a giant leap up into the air. The stables quickly disappeared from view. It was a young dragonite, probably not more than ten years or so and quite small.

Impetus made sure that the dragonite landed safely behind a large wall and carefully climbed off its back.

"It is a pity you ca not fly in space, Apples." He said and patted it on its nose. A clicking response came. Impetus took up his MDC and contacted Alben again. "Hey, you do not see a guy hanging around my ship?" Albens head turned slowly.

"Just a mechanic, why?"

"Does he have his hair in braids? Brown haired?" Alben looked again.

"Yeah, that is right…"

"Go tell him that the guy who broke his sabre wants him to come to shuttle-bay 3, now." "Sure thing, sir." Alben said and turned off the MDC. Impetus turned to Apples again.

"I think we got it." They both snuck as quietly as possible to the cargo ramp. The dragonite was about the size of an X-Wing and made the sneaking quite hard. "You find your way back?" He asked. A click. _YES._ Impetus closed the cargo-doors and looked around the corner, seeing Nivean heading towards the ship. Impetus waved him in under the wing. Nivean looked at Impetus' arm that he held to his chest, but then quickly looked away again.

"Are you all right?!?" He asked.

"I am fine." Impetus grunted and looked down on his arm. He hoped it did not get any worse. "I need you to fly this ship, if you are up to it?"

"You want me to fly this ship? What? Am I a _buddy_ now?" Impetus sighed. The good thing in the Empire was that nobody really asked why, saving a lot of Impetus' time.

"If you do not want to be stranded here, this is your only option. The X-Wing only holds one. And that one is me."

"There is an X-Wing next to your! With that pilot that you asked to tell me, you know… Why do we not just nick his?" A small grin appeared on Impetus' face.

"Jedi are not supposed to steal, Nivean. Even of you would lower yourself to such a level, he is with me, and he is flying that ship. So, either you take this one, or you stay here." Nivean glared at him for a moment, and then headed for the cockpit. "Just follow us!" Impetus said.

The night was dark, and Impetus tried to make himself as small as possible, creeping from shadow to shadow. It went all fine until he passed through the area where a match in air-hockey was shown on a big screen. Impetus had just accidentally turned his head so that it was somewhat visible that way. Of course Tarion was sitting over there. At first he did not seem to notice, but then he turned his head again, his eyes as wide as if he had seen a rancor. Impetus quickly rounded a corner and quickly got Alben on the line

"Get the ships ready, now! Everything ready to start!" He closed the connection and hurried down the last hangar. Just as he suspected, he heard steps behind himself, steps from one man. Impetus stopped. Slowly turning around, he faced the pilot.

"What are you doing here, you are not a pilot!" Taurin said and stopped.

"Sure I am." Impetus responded. Taurin looked at him again.

"You…who are you? You are… not…"

"Oh yes I am, Tau, I am. And I need to get going." Taurin's mouth opened, and closed again."Let me go." Impetus said and slowly backed away. He remembered his time it the Imperial Academy. They had been teaching him that you should meet offence with offence. Obviously it worked in this case.

"How…?" Taurin said. Impetus shook his head. Taurin was still confused, and Impetus used that confusion to quickly turn and run all he had to the ships. About five seconds later the pilot realized he was still standing, and ran after, but it did not matter. Impetus was already at his ship and climbed in, closing the hatch.

"Let's roll!" He said to Alben and took the control in his left hand, guiding the ship upwards.

They had been flying in hyperspace for a couple of hours when Impetus began feeling his arm again. It was an unpleasant creeping feeling at first, but it soon got worse. He slowly turned in the small cockpit and dug down into his pocket finding only two more of the stimulants, which meant he would have to fly through half the trip without painkillers for his arm. He swore to himself, looking around for any medical supplies. He did not find any.

Somewhere half way through the journey, he injected another into his arm, struggling to hold it steady with his shaking hand. As he felt the pain vanish, he dried some of the cold sweat that had appeared on his forehead. He was not supposed to do these kinds of things! He needed to be on a _big_ ship with much _room_ and _space_! Not in a half-malfunctioning old X-Wing that only the Jedi archives knew how old it was! He was feeling less than comfortable for every hour that went by, and the broken arm was beginning to take out its toll on him. He tried to find a more comfortable position in the restricted space, and then closed his eyes. Exhausted he fell into a light sleep.

IX.

The sun was shining with merciless strong rays down on the white beach and on the landing pad. Somewhere over the hill, the two stormtroopers were sitting as usual, playing pazaak; their white helmets were gleaming in the sun.

Impetus was sitting on a small platform built into the sand on a small plasteel chair with his cap pushed down over his eyes, trying to evade as much sunlight as he could. He also had a pair of full-covering black sun goggles hanging around his neck, just in case he needed to go out on the beach. Sure, he enjoyed the sun sometimes, but this heat was ridiculous! Every time he looked up, the bright light bounced from the sand into his eyes and made him half-blind, closing them again. He was still weak from the past few days fighting, but his leg and forehead had healed quite well thanks to the kolto Alben had found.

He stifled a yawn and opened the collar some more, stretching his legs. At least he was not _in_ the sun. He leaned his head on the rock behind his back and crossed his arms. How long was he supposed to sit here? He moved his fingers on his broken arm, feeling them tingle underneath the hardened bandage.

Last night, in the middle of the night, he had been awoken by one of the on duty guards, as a link was waiting for him in the control room. Luckily, he had fallen asleep with his form on in his armchair, and therefore quickly got up and fixed himself, leaving the room quickly.

The control room had been empty and dark, with only the screen to illuminate the area. "Open the link." He said to the computer. A connection patched trough a somewhat grainy blue 3D picture of Darth Vader. Impetus mouth had dried up instantly. "Lord Vader." He said. The blue model had turned to him.

"Admiral Cky, I see you escaped… the Rebel base." The mechanical voice cracked, the connection was not the best.

"Yes sir." Impetus said.

"So tell me, were there many survivors?" Darth Vader asked.

"Most of the ship exploded, my Lord. Only a couple of hundred, not more I would guess, mostly from the upper decks of the ship, officers and such." The Dark Lord seemed to nod, pondering on something.

"And the defence system?"

"I took out their main generator. That should keep them busy for some time." All of a sudden, Darth Vader changed the subject, taking Impetus off guard.

"What about your arm, Admiral? Did you tell them something?" Impetus had blinked for a second, and then calmed himself. _He thought the Rebels caused his broken arm!_

"No, nothing, my Lord. I managed to escape before they…" He fell silent.

"I…see…" Vader hissed. "I will come over tomorrow, and ask some more questions." "Sir?" Impetus had tried to keep a calm face.

"As I said. Tomorrow." The connection had been cut.

Impetus once again peered from underneath his cap; one of the stormtroopers bashed the other in the head and threw some cards on him, laughing something. He sighed and put on the goggles on his eyes, rising from the chair, feeling his wet undershirt stick on his back. He walked over to the two guards.

"Why don't you two get inside and wait there?" His meaning was pretty clear.

"Yes sir." They echoed and gathered the cards, leaving the watch-post. Impetus looked after them for a while until they disappeared into the compound, then he looked up into the sky. He did not really enjoy the thought of Vader coming over.

Some hours later, when he had drained his third bottle of water, a ship appeared on the horizon. Impetus walked over to the landing pad, and got a binocular from the small maintenance shed. He zoomed in on the aircraft. It was a Tiderium shuttle, he recognized it. He put the binocular into his belt and pushed up the goggles on his forehead, above his caps sunblock. And waited.

The shuttle arrived quickly, landing on some free space that Impetus X-Wing did not take up. Impetus straightened himself, walking up to the shuttle. The cargo ramp slowly hissed open, and a blast of cold air swooped past Impetus, making him realize how much he missed being on a ship.

Soon, Darth Vader emerged from the dark interior. He stopped close to Impetus, looking down at him, as if expecting him to back away. Impetus head filled with a white noise, as if someone had turned on a radio inside his head.

"My Lord." Impetus said and bowed slightly.

"Admiral." Vader responded. "I will not stay for long, as I have other pressing matters." Impetus looked into the black mask trying to find something to talk to.

"I do not really understand why you would take time to come here, sir. It is quite a remote place." Vader looked around.

"You do not have any security cameras here, correct?" Impetus shook his head. Was there something moving inside? He wished he had some night goggles to be able see trough the dark glass.

"Not out here, I do not find it necessary." Vader turned to him again.

"You did quite a job, escaping that Rebel base. Could you enlighten me on how you managed with that, and how you managed to blow up the generator at the same time?" He said.

"I just fried their main cables, the whole complex powered down. And all the doors opened. Then it was quite simple to sabotage the generator, and then open the hangar doors."

"But how did you manage to fry their main cables, Admiral?" Vader asked, putting his hands at his belt. It felt like he was staring at Impetus. The noise in his head worsened. "With the help of a glass of water, I splashed it on some cables." Impetus replied. Vader made some kind of hissing sound. Impetus guessed it was something similar to smiling in the normal world.

"Did you do it on purpose or by chance?"

"I planned it, if that is what you ask." Vader turned to the Ocean, thinking for a while Impetus assumed. The sun was beginning to set, making the water appear almost orange and the sky rose-red. Impetus also turned his head somewhat, taking in the quite serene scene, after a while, he said:

"It is quite graceful, is it not?" He asked.

"I admit it is, Admiral. And you are quite an asset to the Imperial Navy." Vader turned his head slightly towards Impetus, making him see it in profile. "Even though you have some… objectionable behaviour; I have decided to let you have another ship, as your last one is not salvageable. Or do you object to that?" He turned his view back to the Ocean. Impetus took a deep breath.

"It would be my pleasure to return to space, my Lord. What kind of ship would you have in mind?"

"The _Surprise_." Vader said.

"Is that the name of it?" Impetus asked.

"Yes, a fine "new" ship, currently being built in Kuat, but it will arrive on Coruscant in about four months. It is similar to your old one, but more modern and with a somewhat more slimmed hull. It is custom made to being able to do more quick manoeuvres in battle and to be faster than the normal Imperial _I_-class Star Destroyers. As I heard, it is rebuilt from an old ship they found in an abandoned system not too long ago. Hope you do not mind learning some new technology?" _Wow._ Impetus thought. _WOW. _

"No problem, sir. But I do have a question…" Impetus said. "How come the ISB did not notice the laser cannons, or the base shield on the planet?" Vader did not move.

"That is something that will be taken care of, and when we find the problem, I will let you know, Admiral. Now, you can take these four months and do what you like with them. The only thing I and the Emperor want is a full rapport on that base so we can ground it as fast as possible. Is that clear?" He turned, facing Impetus again. His bandaged arm tingled and a sharp pain radiated from the point where he had broken it. There would be no discussion here.

"I understand completely." Impetus tried not to groan, feeling a slight dizziness.

"Good. You should spend some time with… people you have not visited for a while, Admiral. I leave you now." Impetus held his breath, watching as the dark figure entered his ship. The last statement was to make sure he did not even think about running away, a simple threat to make sure he stayed put. It was like saying:

"WE HAVE OUR EYES AT YOU. WE KNOW_**.**_" Impetus felt a shudder run trough his spine. His arm had begun hurting again, so he pulled out a stimulant from his pocket and injected it into his arm. _He was not going anywhere._

Nivean tried not to care so much about the cold interior of the base, but he could simply not get used to the permafrost condition inside. He found it fascinating that someone actually wanted to live like this. That is why he had spent his time outside mostly, looking at the nature and enjoying the peace and calm environment.

Last night Cky had gotten a holo-link from someone, but as Nivean had tried to find out who, Cky had just frowned and walked away, muttering something like:

"… you will feel it…", or something similar before he closed the doors to his chamber. Now Nivean had been sitting inside, just as Cky had told him to. And he had indeed felt a presence of something arriving, something that he had never felt in his life. It had been such a mix of different urges and emotions and who knows what that he had been overwhelmed. It was a little exhilarant; he had to admit to himself.

The presence had gone just as quickly as it arrived, and soon afterwards Cky came walking in, drying some sweat from his forehead. He cooled himself under a ventilation vent and then walked into the kitchen to, Nivean assumed, get something to drink. He followed him and walked into the kitchen. Cky was digging in the fridge for something, and soon rose with a bottle of gin in his hand.

"Cheers!" He said and prepared to exit the room again, but Nivean hurried over there and placed himself in the way.

"What was that? What did it want?" He asked, scanning Cky's face, it was completely unexpressive and the green eyes were dully looking at Nivean.

"That was Vader, he asked me for some facts about the Rebel base." Cky said, his monotone voice echoing in the empty kitchen.

"Oh my!" Nivean said. "You did not tell him anything did you?" Cky looked up at him, as if he thought Nivean was stupid or something worse.

"I told him what he wanted to know, the rest I will write in the report I will be sending him." "What?!?" Nivean managed to cry out. "They will be… dead, killed off like flies now that the generator does not work! You mean you… what about your men still there?!?" Cky's eyebrows furrowed

"I will do everything I can for them… now move before I get angry." Nivean stood fast.

"How could you??? What are you going to do???"

"Now?" Cky asked. "I am officially on vacation now, so I am going to go drink a little…" He looked on the bottle. "…gin… move, Nivean."

"People are going to die, and you are going on vacation?!?" Nivean yelled, as the anger poured over his mind.

"Yes." Said Impetus bluntly. Nivean stood fast in the doorway. The next second he saw something flashing past his eye, hitting him in the neck. When he realized he could barely breath he was already lying on the floor, gasping.

"I said move, Jedi." Cky said quietly and stepped close to Nivean's face with his black boot to get over his body. "Place him somewhere out of the way." He said to one of the other guards, and then moved down the hall. At his doors, he turned and looked on Nivean, getting up from the floor, then walked in and closed the doors. The two guards grabbed Nivean under his arms and dragged him away to his room. As they passed the control room, Alben looked up at him from a screen, saying:

"You do not have a clue do you?" He turned his face back to the monitor. Nivean shook his head. _What were they all so stuffed up with? _

"Excuse me, but where are you going?" Nivean walked up to Impetus and pulled his robe closer around him as the compound doors opened. Outside massive waves were hitting against the beach and the sun was quickly fading into some dark blue clouds, rising from the west.

"Away obviously." Impetus replied and strode over to the X-Wing, Nivean followed him. "And what am I supposed to do???" Impetus stopped and turned, his rain-poncho dancing in the wind.

"You stay here, look at the fishes, meditate on some stone somewhere far away or study grass… Whatever you Jedi do." He grinned and let his attention slip back to the X-Wing. "You ca not just leave me here! I need to help people!"

"You need to help people? How are you going to do that? If I would leave you on some civilized world, they would catch you in an instant! Do you not know that? The only place you can be at right now if you want to be somewhat safe is here… You can always make a new lightsaber or something." A gust hit the landing pad and made Nivean sway and almost fall down. He looked at the horizon and saw the clouds gather even more. He guessed it was the start of the rain season here on this ocean planet.

"But why did you help me in the first place?" Impetus frowned and turned his head.

"If you want I can kill you. That would not be a problem." Nivean exhaled and looked on Impetus, wondering if he was serious. It looked like he was. _Were there any questions this guy could answer?_

"Just tell me where you are going and I will be off your back." He finally said. Impetus seemed to brood on the proposal for a while then slowly nodded.

"I am going on vacation, as I said. After that I am going into space again." Nivean nodded. "I am sorry for having to ask you about this, but why not just defect to the Rebels? They would welcome you as an ally, and you would not have to bother with all these rules and regulations! And you are not a complete creep like the rest of those Imperials I have seen…yet." Impetus chuckled silently and looked down on the ground for a second.

"Not a complete _creep_ yet… Thank you, I will remember that. Anyway, nothing could get me to change side now, not even all the credits in the world!" He looked up at Nivean again, then at the thunderstorm.

"But why??? I do not understand! What could possibly keep you in the Empire?"

"Look, I really need to go, so I will just make it quick, ok? I am going to Balmorra. There, as the midterm vacations have already started, these guys are waiting for me." Impetus pulled out his MDC and then got something from his neck. It looked like a small pendant of some sorts. He let it glide over the pad and then put it around his neck again. The MDC seemed to buzz for a while, and then a picture appeared on the screen. Impetus turned it to Nivean.

There were three persons on the picture standing in front of some skyscrapers. It was probably Impetus in the middle, but the other two Nivean did not have a clue about. One was a young female with curly hair and the other a boy; probably around twelve years old "That was a couple of years ago, on Coruscant." Impetus said.

"Who?" Nivean murmured.

"You sure are slow… Those are my… kids, children, offspring, genetic legacy call it what you like…" Impetus put his MDC back into his pocket. "I know that you do not know anything about these kinds of things, Nivean… You are twenty five and a wannabe Jedi! And I… am older than you think… It is only because my race lives slightly longer than an average human that you could not tell it by my face… You see, a Force user could never destroy a planet, but I sure could if it came to the choice between it and my children. As long as they exist, I will do anything to protect them from people who somehow want to ruin their future…ANYTHING... And now I am leaving, please try not to look so surprised. Go and meditate or whatever." Impetus got up into the X-Wing and started up the motors, just as the light rain turned into a real thunderstorm. Within moments he was gone, as if consumed by the storm. Nivean blinked then turned. _What did he mean by that?_ He wondered and dried his face from the rain, and then shrugged. At least he would have a lot of time to think about it. He walked back inside; there Havey was waiting for him. She tugged his robe.

"Show me how you make things fly!" She called. "Pleeease." Nivean shrugged. _Why not?_ He thought to himself and followed the little girl.

 Imperial Security Bureau

"All suspects are guilty, otherwise they shouldn't be suspects." ―Imperial Security Bureau motto


End file.
